Temple Of Saints - Closing the Gap

Bells League Division One 01/03/2003

Alloa 1 Saints 2 League Table Here

Team : Cuthbert, Baxter, Marco, Murray, Dods, Maxwell, McClune, M-Ro, JR, Paddy, Tommy
Subs : Miotto, Ferry, Forsyth, Hay, Peaso

Before today's game, Maxwell was in the papers talking about grinding out a win against Alloa. Well that's what we did although there was more grinding in the teeth of the Saints fans towards the end than anything else as Saints contrived to almost settle for a point in one of the most nervous finishes to a game all season. Still a win's a win eh? Injury-ravaged as we were Stark rang the changes with M-Ro, Murray and Marco returning to the side and Panther, J-Ro and Noble out. Peaso made the bench and McClune did enough last Sunday to warrant keeping his place in the centre of midfield as Saints lined up in a 4-4-2 formation with Paddy and Tommy leading the line.

The game started scrappily with Saints looking slow off the mark. Paddy was at the centre of the action in the early stages. First he set up Tommy on a run only for the Dane to be ruled offside (it wasn't to be his day) then a couple of minutes later he released M-Ro into the box but the midfielder was too slow to get to the ball. At the other end Dods was skinned by the Alloa winger and it took a Maxwell header to clear the lines. Saints had the first real chance in the 9th minute when Tommy broke down the left and cut inside his defender. His cross was met at the back post by JR but his chip was tipped wide by the keeper. Paddy had a good run end in being tackled in the box as Saints seemed intent on walking the ball into the net. But M-Ro came close in 20 minutes (yup the game was that exciting) with a low drive which Soutar in the home goal did well to get down to hold. Cuthbert the Cat was called into similar action a couple of minutes later when he saved a 25 yard drive from Alloa.

In 25 minutes though we broke the deadlock. JR made a run down the right but was fouled. A quick free kick from the Saints player into the box saw Darren Dods rising ("like a salmon going home to spawn" according to a nameless Saints supporter) to power a header into the net and make it 1-0. Sigh of relief from the Saints fans and thoughts of relaxing came to mind. Unfortunately it seemed to effect the players as well and in an almost identical move 3 minutes later an Alloa free kick from the left was headed past Cuthbert by Sloan to level the score. Saints pressed back up the park.

A corner was flicked across the goalmouth by Dods before being cleared and then in 34 minutes Tommy crossed from the right. M-Ro had his rocket of a shot charged down and when the ball broke back to him he slipped it to JR in the box who seemed to be pulled to the ground. JR had a shot blocked before the interval when he got onto the end of a Maxwell cross but if you wanted to sum up the afternoon for Saints Tommy did it brilliantly on the stroke of half-time when he had the ball and was caught sleeping by an Alloa defender looking like a lost soul.

No surprise then when Tommy didn't come out for the second period with Peaso replacing him up front. And it seemed that Saints had had a good old fashioned bollocking by Stark as they started much the livelier side. In 48 minutes Paddy had a good turn and shot tipped wide by Soutar. From the corner the ball broke out to Troy McClune whose shot from the edge of the box was just over the bar. And a minute later from a Maxwell shy, Paddy won another corner. From JR's kick, the ball was flicked into the box and broke to Paddy who stuck it into the net only for the goal to be chalked off for a foul in the build-up. Another free kick in 53 minutes saw Maxwell win another header and from his knock down Peaso saw his shot saved. The ball broke out the box to Dods and his 30 yarder was well saved.

Four minutes later Peaso was fouled 25 yards out and from the free kick JR's shot was deflected and saved again by Soutar. Then Paddy held up the ball well after a good build up on the right. He laid it off to M-Ro but his run into the box tried to be too clever and the defence cleared. Peaso had another shot saved on the hour mark and then a good JR run saw the ball flicked wide to M-Ro on the left. His cross came over to the back post where Baxter headed it back into the 6 yard box - where there was a total lack of blue shirts. But we eventually took the lead in 66 minutes when Marco passed to Peaso who was fouled right on the edge of the box. From the set piece, M-Ro passed to JR and his shot went through the wall. Soutar got down to save it but failed to hold on and Paddy was there to blast home the rebound and restore the lead.

Dods had a header go wide just after that but Alloa began to get back into the game with a 25-yarder going over the bar and Murray and Maxwell under a fair bit of pressure to clear their lines with the Saints midfield reverting to their behaviour of the first 45 and sitting far too deep. Even when the defence was beaten as it began to be as we rode our luck we still had the Cat and in 77 minutes he made a cracking save to keep the score at 2-1. Then a couple of minutes later Alloa beat the defence again and Crabbe's cheeky chip was just held by Cuthbert. With the pressure building the ref finally started producing the cards. Maxwell and Marco were booked in the 81st and 84th minutes sandwiching another Alloa free kick from 25 yards out which the Cat did well to save. But 5 minutes from time we should have rounded things off when JR was released. He sprinted up the park and was through one on one with Soutar only for the Alloa keeper to save the shot.

Eventually the ref put us all out of our misery with the full-time whistle. Performance wise it was pretty poor stuff at times although my MoM Maxwell, Murray and Marco all put in good shifts. Paddy had a good workout up front but Tommy was poor in the first half and Peaso in the second still seems to lack match fitness. But in the end who cares - we got the 3 points and results elsewhere have closed the gap.

It's not over yet.

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