Temple Of Saints -

Scottish Premier League - 02/02/2002

Saints 0 Aberdeen 1 League Table Here

Team: Miller, McCluskey, Tommy, Murray, Weir, Dods, Lynch, JR, Sammy, Kiegan, Peaso
Subs Cuthbert, Jones, Paddy, Falconer, Maher

Ach that's it - never mind the big zilch in the goals tally for Saints today that zero represents the amount of hope, fight and passion that the players apparently possess. And it pains me to say it but it's the amount of faith I've got in the Saints management team. It's time Stark and co faced up to their responsibilities and stopped playing so many players out of position - especially when we all know they are more effective in other areas of the park and the side isn't covering itself in glory just now. Sure we can blame the soft goal, the ref, the diving and cheating from Aberdeen but when it comes down to it there are far too many people at the club who just won't take any responsibility for the current situation. And if that's the case you've got to ask whether they should be kept around McDiarmid.

In theory we lined up with a 4-4-2 formation. Cap'n Jim returned to partner Dods in the centre of defence whilst McCluskey moved out to the right back position behind Lynch in midfield. Unfortunately Lynch seemed to expect an overlapping back whereas McCluskey was more than happy to sit back for the 90 minutes. The left side was as bad with Tommy back in the side at left back behind Peaso (he's a striker remember) - surely Marco and Tommy would have made a more sensible pairing. Central midfield saw Murray and Hartley come into play behind a front pairing of Sammy and Kiegan. Of course Rachid didn't even make the bench - bet he's so glad he didn't bother with that African Nations Cup rubbish.

I'd love to say we started well and were unlucky but to be honest we looked dodgy in defence from the start and in the 3rd minute we should have been one down with the scores staying level thanks to an acrobatic Miller save tipping Winters shot over. Of course that sounds good until you realise the shot only came about thanks to Miller throwing the ball straight to Winters feet a few seconds beforehand. A couple of minutes later we almost threatened when Tommy played a good ball up the left wing for Kiegan to run onto. The striker cut into the box but elected to shoot when a square ball to Youssouf (one of the few willing to do any running off the ball today) would have been simpler.

A Dadi free kick over the bar and a Guntveidt dive in the box (of course it went unpunished by the referee as he gave us an early indication of the competency we could expect) were the only other bits of action as the game became a scrappy affair with Saints breaking down the Dons attacks only to give them the ball back with a display of loose passing not seen this side of the Annual Vindaloo Festival.

We did manage a shot on target in the 25th minute when Sammy, he of no nickname, was fouled and Hartley's soft free kick was easily held. Almost straight away the Sheep broke up the park and Miller made a great save from Dadi the Kicker who despite losing possession had a wee kick at Cap'n Jim and started a nice wee feud going there.

With 34 minutes on the clock Kiegan had a good break up the right after combining with Lynch - he beat 2 defenders to cut along the byeline only for his chip across goal to be headed for a corner with Sammy waiting at the back post. A couple of minutes later Hartley got a nosebleed getting into the opposition half but as happens all the time with Saints these days, the attack broke down with no support in sight. We should have taken the lead a minute later though when McCluskey took a good throw-in on the right to Kiegan. He turned and broke to the edge of the box only for his placed shot to be just tipped wide by the keeper.

Dods picked up the first booking a few minutes later for a foul on Dadi and then the latter forced Miller into a great save after a static Saints defence let the Dons striker through. We were only delaying the inevitable though and 2 minutes before the break another Dons attack saw the ball sent wide left to Winters (totally unmarked). He sent a cross into the box to the far post where Dadi headed the ball into the net past Miller with the rest of the Saints defence... well to describe them as static would give a greater impression of mobility from our back 4 than there really was.

And to round the half off nicely Murray picked up a booking for dissent.

So with 15 minutes of team talk and morale boosting tactics from the Saints management emphasising what was at stake you'd expect us to come out fired up for the 2nd half all set to turn things round. Aye well believe that and your either not a Saints fan or else Mr Thomas' favourite toilet companion.

If anything we were even worse in the 2nd half with panic written in big neon letters over every Saints player. We were nearly 2 down with 5 minutes played as a long ball to Guntveidt saw him running through unchallenged on goal - luckily he was as inept as us and settled for a corner after Tommy did well to drop back and cover. But with only a Murray shot over the bar to show for things Stark decided to liven things up (although most of the fans would have prefer

red the "livening" to be done with 240V and some electrodes). On came Martin Maher on the left wing with Peaso (who had been dire) going off - all that with 25 minutes to go. And 5 minutes later (and a Tommy yellow card for throwing the ball away when Wullie Young awarded a blatant Saints throw to the Sheep) we had another change - and this one did get more than a little reaction from the fans. Off went Sammy and on came Jones. Cue massive booing from the supporters who seemed to be the only people to see that Sammy was more likely to cause problems and run at the opposition and win the ball back than Kiegan who was becoming more and more like a prima donna with his lazy attitude. The chants of "What a crap decision" from the East Stand summed it up.

On the park the game got scrappier - Bisconti went in heavily on Murray but escaped unpunished. We got the free-kick though and JR sent a good ball into the box which Dods headed down and forced a save from their keeper. But within a minute the action was back at the other end and the Sheep attack only broke up when Young finally booked Dadi for a disgraceful stamp on Tommy.

The last 15 minutes were pretty much end to end but Saints never looked like scoring although the introduction of Jones at least meant we didn't lose the ball so easily. But when you're 1-0 down and in the last few minutes of the game, seeing the midfield and defence reluctant to cross the halfway line to support the strikers is totally disheartenting. At least Hartley and Lynch tried to get forward and support at times but both spent half their time covering for the defence (with Lynch dropping back to cover for McCluskey far too often). Our last chance came with 2 minutes to go when McCluskey put a good cross over only for Jones header to be saved on the line.

MoM for me was Tommy - he (along with Hartley, Weir and Sammy) were the only players to show any fight and passion. The rest just didn't seem to care. Most of them looked as though they didn't want to be there in the first place.

So did the fans....

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