Temple Of Saints - Ach Well

Scottish Premier League - 15/09/2001

Saints 2 "Ambitious" Saints Reserves 2 League Table Here

Team: Cuthbert, Dods, Murray, McCluskey, Kemble, Wacko, Tommy, Big Mac, Falconer, Pope
Subs Main, Parker, Forsyth, McClune, Paddy

Yet again we fail to kill a team off after taking command towards the end of the game. And we were against 10 men. And most of them, resplendent in their golden shellsuits were ex-Saints players so it should have been easy enough. In the end though some acrobatic goalkeeping by Blotto kept the scores even.

With Main failing a fitness test he dropped to the bench and 19-yr old Kevin Cuthbert took over for his SPL debut. Cap'n Jim was also missing allowing Chopper to move to the centre of defence and Wacko to take over the mantle of skipperdom. Big Mac got the nod ahead of Kiegan who along with Flash and Troy settled for a place on the bench with the Belly out altogether. Pre-match also saw the wonderfully entertaining sight of SuperSaints taking on the Livvy Lion mascot (the presence of whom put the "massive" travelling support up to 50 odd). Mind you the Saints fans aren't exactly rushing to get in either with only 3800 in attendance.

The game started lively enough with Free Willie and Wacko combining well to send the Pope on a run into the box only for the ball to be too far in front of him and allow Blotto to get his greasy mits on it. We were playing some good stuff and Tommy was actually beating his man on the left wing. A couple of times he managed to send a neat cross-cum shot low across the goalmouth only to see the ball go just wide. Willie, Wacko and the Pope combining well in the middle of the park.

With 15 minutes gone the miracle of a Saints side taking the lead finally came to pass. Pope slipped the ball to Big Mac who sent it wide right to Tommy. He got to the byeline but cut in and sent a chip into the box for Free Willie to send a lovely header past Blotto. Almost immediately afterwards we nearly went two up when a neat through ball sent Big Mac through only for him to be crudely pulled down by the Livvy No 4. True to tradition good old Stuart Dougal only showed the Schemie One a yellow card (no doubt an "Ambitious" card though). Big Mac took the free kick and sent a neat shot over the wall only for Blotto to hold on to it like a stolen shellsuit.

Saints were playing some lovely flowing football with the passes actually finding their man for a change. But of course it didn't last. Free Willie had a decent header held but after 25 minutes some poor defending as Saints failed to clear their lines saw the ball break to Quino on the edge of the box and he put a low shot past Cuthbert to even it up. Even then the Schemie ones tried to spoil the game. Saints had a break on the right wing but the ref was forced to stop play when the Schemie Ones "Ambitious" physio came on without permission to try and give one of their players treatment. A stern warning for the physio and a drop ball as the Saints attack was broken up.

Three minutes later and it got worse when a Livvy free kick saw the ball knocked over to the left where an unmarked Bingham (about the only ex-Saintee not booed today) sent a shot under Cuthbert to give the OF-wannabes the lead. Saints were poor after that. Forrest Gump out on the left(!) looked lost and although the game was going end-to-end with a Big Mac miss followed up by a Chopper tackle forcing the Ginger Tosser to shoot over, there wasn't much action before the break other than a yellow for Forrest Gump for a foul on the Tosser.

Second-half started in the same way with Dods turned by the Tosser only for the Greedy One to be foiled by a good Cuthbert save. He immediately sent a clearance to MacDonald at the other end of the park only for the strikers shot to go just wide. Five minutes later and we were even when a Tommy run ended in him being fouled. Pope took the free kick and sent the ball into the box where a Dods header downwards was met by Big Mac who blasted the ball over the line to make it 2-2.

Saints began to press and after Pope was fouled with no free-kick given some justice was done a minute later after a BigMac shot just wide (following a neat turn) was pulled back by the ref to give us a free-kick. Wacko took it only to earn a corner.

The hour mark saw the fouls worsen - a Livvy boy tried to nick Popes lucky pendant by climbing over him to get at the goods (no foul) then after another couple of Tommy crosses (one of which saw Blotto wrong-footed just tip it wide), Quino was given a straight red card for a nasty challenge on the Pope. So up against 10 men and in control what happened? Yup sod all. Saints just failed to create any chances and break down the Livvy defence. Our best effort came a minute after the red card when Benny blasted the ball against Blotto from 10 yards.

Kiegan came on for Dods for the last 20 minutes. We had the entertainment of a Cuthbert dribble round the Tosser before some poor defending nearly saw us go 3-2 down with only a last-ditch Murray tackle saving the day. Bingham fouled Kiegan who didn't look comfortable wide on the right just before Paddy came on to replace the tiring Free Willie. But despite Wacko, BigMac, Kiegan and Paddy up front we weren't linking well and struggling to create any chances. In fact it was Cuthbert who pulled off a great save 3 minutes from time that kept us in it.

MoM for me was McCluskey. The defence still doesn't look rock solid but he had an excellent game at the back. Mentions too for Cuthbert, Tommy, Dasovic and MacDonald who all played well with the latter looking a better bet for a starting jersey than Kiegan.

We're still bottom but that's 3 games unbeaten now and after all it's only a game.....

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