Temple Of Saints - Bloody Lucky
Tennents Scottish Cup 3rd Round - 25/01/03
Airdrie Utd 1 Saints 1
Team : Main, Robbo, Forsyth, Marco, Murray, Maxwell,
Paddy, Reilly, JR, Parker, Tommy
Subs : Cuthbert, Panther, Hay, Baxter, Dods
Well
let's get the bad stuff out of the way first. If it hadn't beeen for Mark
Baxter's debut goal for Saints in the closing minutes of the game it's
safe to say this would have ended Billy Stark's reign along with several
of the so-called "stars" of the current side. From a start where
we dominated the first half without putting the ball into the net (stop me
if you've heard this before) we lost a daft goal thanks to poor defending
and keeping and spent the rest of the match running round like homeless
chickens until fluking an equaliser.
Okay I might as well give the detailed post-mortem. Teamwise it was an
unchanged line-up (and with the same "mental attitude" according
to John "Snailspace" Robertson) with Hay being deemed fit enough
by the management for a place on the bench whilst Paddy started up front
in a 4-3-3 line-up. From the start in a windy wet New Broomfield (same
graffiti but it's on a nice new stand now) we went on the attack. The 2nd
minute saw a good move as Marco fed Robbo out on the right wing. He got to
the byeline and managed to cut the ball back into the box for Parker. His
shot was saved and although JR reached the rebound first his shot was
blocked by a TFKAC arse. Three minutes later and Paddy put a cross in from
the right that was missed by both Tommy and JR then two minutes later a
cross from the left by Flash found Paddy in the box but he couldn't make
enough room to shoot.
At the other end Maxwell made a last ditch header to prevent Airdrie
getting a shot in as we were caught napping in defence. Main dealt easily
with the resulting corner. Saints won a corner next thanks to Paddy but
some things never change and the corners today were just rank rotten with
both Marco and JR the main culprits. Still, at least we were getting the
odd shot on target - Tommy had a weak header saved in the 14th minute.
Then a couple of minutes later we nearly took the lead when a Robbo cross
from the right found Paddy whose sclaff of a backheel was deflected from a
TFKAC thug over the bar. Tommy headed the resulting corner wide. Reilly
was next up when a JR free kick in from the left (after Paddy was fouled)
saw him attempt a spectacular overhead shot which was again blocked. Paddy
had a header saved before a neat ball from Paddy found Keigan running
through one on one with the onrushing keeper who made a great save to beat
Parker. But gradually as the half wore on the mistakes began to show.
Veraille missed an absolute sitter for the home side in 23 minutes when he
blasted the ball over the bar, and Main had to make a good save at the
back post from one of the Airdrie corners.
Saints
were getting shots on target it's just that they were lacking in any real
power. Keigan got onto a Tommy pass and managed a neat turn and shot which
was well saved before Robbo had an effort which went well wide. Reilly
picked up a soft booking in 35 minutes as Saints began to go off the pace.
too many loose passes were failing to find blue shirts and after an even
spell, the nightmare began to happen in the final minute of the half when
an Airdrie Utd break down their right saw Flash stand off Veraille too
long. This allowed him to get to the box and cross into the middle where
there were 2 white shirts and only one blue shirt (yup one defence posted
missing). The ball came to McGuire and with Main taking an epoch to come
off his line to block the shot the TFKAC player slotted the ball between
his legs and into the net.
The second-half, when you'd perhaps expect Saints to come out fighting
had a quiet start with Saints playing against the wind. And in the 50th
minute we got really lucky. After another weak Saints attack had been
broken up after JR's poor cross was blocked, Airdrie broke up the park
down their left with Robbo still stuck in the opposition half struggling
to get back. Murray seemed to clash with McGuire in the box but luckily
the ref ignored the penalty claims of the home support.
We were managing the odd attack but it was far too weak and Saints were
all over the place. Tommy nearly pulled us level on the hour mark when
some good build-up from JR and Marco saw the ball slipped to the Dane at
the back post unmarked. He cut inside a defender but his shot was saved
and put out for a corner. From that Paddy flicked the ball onto the back
post where Robbo was unmarked with all the time in the world. So he
fucking well punts it over the bar. Paddy had a decent shot saved a few
minutes later before Stark rang the changes (not that the large away
support were very impressed). Baxter and Hay replaced Tommy and Flash with
Marco dropping to left-back.
Murray
picked up a yellow card (well-deserved) for a late tackle on McGuire a few
minutes later. Parker and Paddy had shots but to be honest we were
struggling to find any semblance of shape or form - and it was summed up
beautifully by Main getting a loose ball and throwing it out of the park
in a pathetic attempt to reach Marco. Hay, in about his only touch of the
ball which shows how bad he was, had a shot go over the bar with 8 minutes
left before Stark played his final throw of the dice. On came Dods for
Reilly (to some cheers) with Maxwell pushing forward as a striker as
Saints went 3-3-4. Within a minute though Main was forced into making a
great save from an Airdrie attack. And with the chants of "Stark must
go" again sounding from the away fans Main just kicked the ball out
of the ground - not very impressive. There was still some fight in the
Saints side though with both Marco and Baxter putting in good heavy
challenges with the latter ending up receiving some studs from a stamping
TFKAC thug. He managed to get into the box and shot just wide from the
free kick from just outside the 6 yard box.
But then the miracle we never expected happened with 2 minutes left.
Some neat passing (see, I said it was a miracle) saw the ball knocked to
the far post to the unmarked Baxter, who turned, cut outside a man and
sent a cross cum shot over the keepers head and into the net. Excellent
goal. After that the dying minutes saw the grudges that had been building
boil over into a good old cup tie brawl with Baxters late challenge (for
which he was booked) ending in a TFKAC thug also being booked for
retaliating against Paddy - at least it sets it up nicely for the replay.
MoM for me was difficult - mainly due to the lack of candidates. Baxter
was good when he came on (much better than Robertson), but only Parker,
Marco and (my MoM) Maxwell showed anything like the sort of fight we
needed to get a result. The rest - Robbo, Main, Hartley, Reilly and Hay
especially were just passengers. Hay is not the answer up front, Robbo is
too slow to be a defender and Main needs to be dropped.
Well at least we're still in the bloody cup.....
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