Temple Of Saints - Only one goal?

Scottish Premier League - 24/11/2001

Saints 1 Killie 0 League Table Here

Team: Miller, Murray, Tommy, Dasovic, Kemble, Flash, Lynch, JR, Russell, Paddy, Pope
Subs Cuthbert, Marco, McClune, Peaso, Rachid

Yet again the Saints fans leave the park after more disappointment. Absolute farce - how on earth did we only manage to score one goal against that mob (and their referee pal)? God knows we made enough chances to score 4 or 5 and the scoreline would have still flattered Killie. And as for the makeshift defence - Kemble played excellently and Flash at last is starting to show some more of his early season form.

With the changes from last week, Saints still managed to line up in a 3-5-2 formation with Murray, Kemble and Flash in the middle and Tommy and Lynch on the flanks. Up front the changes were rung as well with Pope moving to a wide left role as JR dropped into the middle of the park and Craig Russell started ahead of Peaso.

Despite an even start for the first few minutes it wasn't long before the confidence and fight of the Saints players began to dominate. We should have taken the lead in the 8th minute when a through ball on the right was missed by the Killie defence. Craig Russell was straight onto it and got to the byeline before sending a low cross into the box where Paddy, from all of 3 yards out managed to blast his shot over the bar. A minute later the same player managed to send a shot across the goal after a short pass from Tommy on the left. When it did come 3 minutes later though the goal was a beauty. Paddy and JR ran forward into the box. Paddy slipped the ball to JR only for his shot to be blocked by Marshall. It fell out to the left though where Russell was totally unmarked and sent a beautiful low drive into the net.

The game was fairly fast and scrappy and as usual these days the ref decided to show the usual level of inconsistency with Canero escaping without even a warning after up ending Russell whilst Kemble, Forsyth etc were punished for being within a mile of a Killie striker. Saints were turning on the style and looking as confident and in control as ever with one move in 18 minutes a great example of Saints passing the ball about (guess who was watching the Liverpool v Barca game last week) before a quick break which saw JR slip the ball wide to Lynch who sent a cross in only for Paddy to have his shot saved.

It wasn't all one-sided and Killie missed a sitter and then blew a free kick on the edge of the box after Kemble breathed too loudly. Pope picked up the first yellow as the game got a bit scrappier on the half hour mark when after going for a 50-50 ball with Dan Dildo the Killie player was left on the turf going for the BAFTA for best faked injury of the season. JR picked up the next yellow as Saints came under some pressure with Kemble blocking a shot (before becoming the 3rd player in the book).

Second-half continued in the same form as we soaked up some early pressure. The ref finally booked a Killie player with McGowne booked for deliberate handball as Saints broke. Tommy took the resulting free kick on the left and from it Craig Russell saw his header tipped wide by Marshall. JR took the corner only for the ball to be cleared off the line. Killie broke up the park and shot just over as Saints began to retreat into their shell a bit more.

The midfield were doing plenty of running and winning the ball but there was a real lack of pace and support for the front men with only JR showing the odd burst of pace. Canero became the 2nd Killie player to be booked for his umpteenth foul on Tommy as Fat Blobby put his kebab pie down long enough to throw on all 3 subs. It didn't stop Saints continuing to attack though and JR had a shot just wide although it was harshly ruled offside.

Peaso came on for the tiring JR as we began to come back into the game more and press for a 2nd goal. The ref showed a total lack of authority with 18 minutes left when Mahood and Canero were allowed to throw the ball away and dish out abuse to the officials after Tommy was given a free kick. A Yellow was produced for Mahood but to be honest when he kept on giving lip to Freeland it should have become a red. As for the free kick JR took it only for the ball to be headed wide.

We had a real scare a minute later when the ball was blocked by Kemble in the Saints box - he had to leave the park for treatment and while off Killie had a free kick saved (you could tell the luck was better than last week).

The last 10 minutes saw Saints make chance after chance as the game opened up. Tommy broke up the left in the 81st minute but instead of taking on the defence himself elected to cross the ball. Paddy took too long and his shot was blocked before Nick got the rebound only for his shot to be held. Rachid came on a minute later for the tiring Paddy and he more than made his mark. With 5 minutes to go Peaso broke down the left and sent a great cross over for Rachid. His shot was saved then the rebound was missed by JR, Rachid took the rebound from that passed it left to the incoming Peaso only for his shot to got across the goal. A minute later and Rachid sent a great ball for the pacy Bet Lynch to get onto and then in the last minute of normal time the Belly was sent through on his own. He had the beating of Dan Dildo (despite the shirt pulling) only for the ball to be blasted over the bar.

Overall a good performance. We're not getting the return on goals we deserve for the efforts but I'll take 3 points anytime. MoM for me was Dasovic again. He put in a heap of work in the midfield and set up plenty of moves. But to be honest there wasn't a weak link in the side today with the Kemble / Murray / Flash defensive trio looking as good as anything we've seen all season.

Now can we try to beat someone else?

This Match Report is copyright Temple Of Saints - not to be reused without permission. Contact webmaster@grange.demon.co.uk.

Remember to vote on todays ref Alan Freeland send marks out of 10 to refvote@grange.demon.co.uk or just select a rating and press the button below ::

Saints Index Fixtures Index Grange Index

Any problems / comments mail webmaster@grange.demon.co.uk