Temple Of Saints - Nae luck

Bells League Division One 14/09/2002

Ayr 0 Saints 0 League Table Here

Team : Cuthbert, Robbo, Tommy, McCluskey, Murray, Maxwell, McCann, Reilly, Hartley, Paddy, Russell
Subs : Main, Keigan, Stevenson, Dods, Marco

God almighty what do we have to do to get the goals flowing. I might as well not bother with a report and instead settle for a rehash of the Queen of the South game - another bucketload of chances, stupid mistakes, puzzling substitutions and a home side keeper in great form. All of which adds up to another 0-0 draw. With Peaso missing out, Russell was the surprise starting choice to partner Paddy ahead of Keigan who had to settle for a place on the bench. Ryan Stevenson recovered from a dead leg to take a sub spot and he was joined by the recalled Marco.

On a sunny pitch it wasn't long before Saints began to put the pressure on and in the first minute Paddy set up JR only for the midfielders shot to go over the bar. The first corner for us came a minute later and despite the good cross the Ayr defence managed to clear the ball. Paddy saw a cross headed over for a corner though Ayr managed to break from the resulting kick and only a great Maxwell tackle on the whingeing Coagie Grady prevented a scoring chance.

Ayr seemed more than happy to punt high balls forward whilst we were struggling to get any moves together from midfield with Tommy having a rotten game and seemingly the target for the boo boys today - no matter how bad a Saints player is, a comment of "I hope you're injured" when he was tackled in the 2nd half as heard from a *Saints* fan is nothing short of a disgrace.

Anyway on the park we were still making plenty of chances. McCann saw a decent shot go over the bar and then Russell set up Robbo after some good play with the ex-Ayr man's shot going just over. In the 21st minute, Paddy had a good run end up with Nelson in the home goal making a great save and then a minute later from a JR corner McCann saw his header cleared off the line. At the other end the Bells Player of the Month was fairly quiet with the only consternation coming from a dropped cross which the Cat did well to recover and hold. It was all Saints really with most of the chances at Nelson's goal. Russell saw an absolute belter of a shot punched clear by the keeper and then on the half-hour Paddy managed to pull off another trick from his repertoire when he got on the end of a Tommy cross only to handle the ball as he tried to chest it down - unfortunately the ref couldn't miss it.

JR got on the end of a return cross from a corner and shot just wide across the goal although it would only have taken a slight deflection or tap for the ball to end in the net. Then after Paddy forced a corner with 5 minutes to go Ayr managed to break again and it took a brilliant Murray tackle to break things up. The half was rounded off with our best chance so far. Russell did some good work and sent a great shot in which Nelson failed to hold only for Paddy to miss the rebound and end up with a corner.

The second-half started much the same way with a couple of corners and a Paddy chance early on. Five minutes into the half Russell set up JR only for the midfielder's soft shot to be easily held. Ayr had their best chance next when a tackle in the box ended up in the ball going back to Cuthbert. Ref Hardie adjudged it to be a passback but luckily from the free kick Ayr blasted the ball over the bar.

Our next best chance came when JR was brought down 25 yards out. His first free kick rounded the wall but hit the post. The ref said the wall was too close and made him retake it. This time it went the other way but Nelson did well to get down to his left and tip the ball wide. The home side were getting into the game more and some defensive lapses with 25 minutes to go saw Ayr manage to get some dangerous crosses and shots in. Keigan came on for Russell now although the boos from the away end showed what the travelling support thought of Stark's tactics. McCann had another curling shot go wide as Saints began to run out of ideas. Stevenson replaced McCann with 15 minutes left and a minute later we had another free kick on the edge of the box. But with Keigan unmarked (and seemingly unnoticed by the Ayr wall) to his right, JR elected to shoot only for the ball to go wide of target.

Cuthbert made his first real save of the day with 7 minutes left as the Saints defence again went to sleep. Two minutes later Tommy was replaced by Marco but the main talking point came a couple of minutes from time when Parker latched onto a through ball and ran into the box only for the Ayr no 6 to bring him down - everyone heard the contact apart from the ref and his even more inept linesman (even the defenders body language gave away what he thought the decision was). Worse though was the decision to book Keigan for diving - totally undeserved. That was it though - another afternoon of missed chances. MoM for me was Reilly who had a solid game on midfield. Most of the side had a decent game though with Tommy and Paddy the worst on show. Tommy needs to be told to stay up the park where he's more effective and Paddy needs a break.

Six games though, unbeaten and no goals conceded. See it isn't all bad.

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