Temple Of Saints - Give us a Goal

Scottish Premier League - 04/08/2001

Saints 0 Pars 2 League Table Here

Team: Main, Murray, Flash, Pope, Dods, Kemble, Tommy, Paddy, Kiegan, JR, Kane
Subs Cuthbert, McCluskey, MacDonald, Jackson, Fotheringham

So much for the season starting this week. A decent crowd, good weather, excellent pitch and a Saints team that despite having about 90% of the possession and plenty of chances, ended up still looking for their first points of the season. Oh yeah and yet again we have to suffer the gloating faces of those Fife wankers.

Only one change to the starting 11 with MoMo's departure allowing Paddy the umpteenth chance to prove he's worth the money. On the bench though Chopper McCluskey returned along with debut boys Peter MacDonald and Wacko Jacko. We went for the 3-5-2 formation as well.

Hell we even started well with a JR cross forcing the Pars keeper into a fumble in the first minute. The ball broke to Murray but his shot was just wide. Still the pressure continued with Paddy and Kiegan doing a lot of running whilst Kane and Murray helped out in the middle - although Pope decided to have one of his off days. Still no sooner than the first comments of "Well we're still unbeaten at home" rung out than the Pars broke down the right. A cross deep into the box beat the defenders and found Kane helpless whilst an unmarked Nicholson volleyed home from the edge of the box past Main. Even as early as that you knew we were going to have an uphill struggle.

We fought back though to practically camp in the Pars half as they settled for hitting us on the counter-attack. Five minutes later Paddy and Kane were involved in some good build-up along with Dods which ended up with the ball breaking to Tommy only for his shot to go wide. Then a free-kick on the edge of the box saw Tommy tap the ball to JR who hit a low shot round the wall only for the keeper to just hold it at the 2nd attempt. All that and plenty of corners as well although we couldn't break down the Pars defence.

The game settled into a midfield battle though and the tackles started to get heavier and nastier with Benny on the receiving end of some studs-up work, not that the ref bothered with the free kick. Paddy was winning plenty of the ball and saw a shot go wide after 20 minutes whilst at the other end Main only had one save to make. The Pars keeper made his second good save of the game 5 minutes before the break when after Tommy won a corner, JR sent in a good cross and Dods saw his header cleared off the line. Unfortunately there wasn't much else in the way of crosses as Saints lacked any imagination with all the balls being played in by JR or Dods.

Second half started in exactly the same way with Saints pressing forward trying to break down the Pars defence. But in 55 minutes it all went belly-up again. Murray and Flash hesitated on the left to put in a tackle and with Benny and Dods in the middle the ball was sent long and Nicholls on the overlap rounded Dods and sent a 20-yd drive rocketing past Main. Good goal but shite defending.

Even worse was 2 minutes later when the ref refused to give a stonewaller penalty to us after a Pars defender handled in the box. Possibly not a bad decision but when the ball played Kemble when Saints were attacking in the first period amazingly enough Benny was penalised. St. Sandy shook things up though and Kiegan and Kane were taken off and replaced by Wacko and Big Mac.

We were on the defensive though and Main made an excellent blocking save on the hour mark. Then 2 minutes later Benny went for the first of several saunters up the park (Christ but he's laid back). He picked up the ball 25 yards out and sent a cracking shot goalwards. It left the keeper stranded but came back off the bar.

We were all over the Pars now but lacked any real threat in the box. Pope saw a 25 yard shot tipped over the bar but to be honest he lacked pace and effort today. From the corner Big Mac tried an overhead kick but it went over the bar. Fotheringham came on for Paddy and Wacko pushed forward to partner Big Mac for the last 20 minutes. And we had plenty of possession and threat with the youngsters in Fotheringham and Flash looking good and whilst it's possibly too early to judge Big Mac he looks fit enough and is willing to tackle and harass the opposition defence. Wacko meanwhile was providing some good distribution.

For all the effort though the last chance came five minutes from time when Wacko was fouled by a Pars defender looking suspiciously like the last man. Surprisingly Fotheringham took the free kick and sent a lovely curling shot round the wall which went just wide.

A depressing defeat then but there were a lot of plus points. We missed the creativity of MoMo for sure and Pope failed to live up to expectations. Kane and Murray were a lot slower than last week and the lack of midfield support meant the strikers too often had little or no options. On the wings JR wasn't too bad and Tommy put in plenty of effort but I don't think there was one occasion when we skinned a defender. As for our defence Benny looked even better than last week and Dods solid enough whilst my MoM Flash recovered from a poor start to put in a good all-round performance. As for the subs, Wacko looks a better option in midfield than Kane, Fotheringham possibly deserves a chance ahead of Pope whilst Big Mac once he's settled in looks to be a decent acquisition. We badly need the strikers to get some goals though.

The only way is up.......

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