Cove Rangers 1 Saints 4
Team : Cuthbert, Ferry, Maher, Robertson, McClune,
Murray, Panther, Fotheringham, Stevenson, Russell, Kiegan
Subs : Main, Marco, Paddy, JR, McCluskey, Reilly, Peaso
So the pre-season games end with Saints unbeaten and although it was a totally different (almost reserve) Saints side in action at Stalag Luft Cove (sorry but that ground looks like a prison camp) today, and despite some poor defending at times against a physical Cove side, we more than deserved the win.
John
Robertson was skipper in what ended up being a 3-4-3 formation with Murray
and Troy partnering him in defence and Ferry and Maher running the right
and left flanks respectively. Fotheringham and the Panther were in central
midfield and White-Boots Stevenson, Keigan and returnee Craig Russell made
up the forward line.
Saints almost took the lead in the 2nd minute when Russell nearly beat the Cove keeper to a slack passback whilst Cuthbert was also called into action to deal with Cove break. Ryan Stevenson had a nice turn and shot a couple of minutes later as we tried to keep the pressure up. Unfortunately for all the hard work we were struggling to win anything in the air or break down the Cove defence and to top things off went 1-0 down in 12 minutes. Robbo played a loose pass (guess what the trend is this season then) and Cove latched onto the ball and broke up the park. Cuthbert came out too early to try and narrow the angle but the Cove forward rounded him and sent a good drive into the net.
Saints
tried to get back into the game and within a minute a Maher cross saw
Stevenson and Russell miss sitters and then from another corner Stevenson
saw his low shot travel along the goal line. It wasn't all one-way though
and in 20 minutes Cove broke and a cross from the right left the Saints
defence flat-footed and allowed a Cove player to send a chip just over the
bar with Cuthbert left in a Seaman-style no-man's land. Maher and Panther
both had good shots although Cove were making the most of the offside trap
to stifle our play. Robbo was making himself heard though and definitely
played the captain's role well.
It was even better in the 28th minute when he got on the end of a corner. His shot was saved by the keeper but not held and he was there to tap in the rebound. A minute later and from a free-kick on the edge of the box Martin Fotheringham sent a lovely shot over the wall only to clip the top of the crossbar. Russell set up Stevenson but the teenager's shot was well saved, whilst at the other end Cuthbert staked his claim to the first team keeper's jersey with a string of saves before the break including a cracking double block on the stroke of half-time.
Any
sign of a brighter start to the second period vanished as Panther gave the
ball away in midfield and allowed Cove through. Their striker rounded
Cuthbert but luckily Robbo was there to clear the shot. Then from the
corner they had room to turn and shoot only to hit the bar. A free kick 10
minutes later saw Cuthbert leave it for some reason although in the end
the ball went just wide of goal.
Saints on the other hand weren't looking too great. Stevenson went on a great run only to totally sclaff his shot. Maher and Fotheringham both came close with decent efforts though and then after a Stevenson run won a corner Russell just missed the target with a diving header. But with 24 minutes left we finally took the lead when Keigan was caught and went down in the box. He took the spot-kick and made it 2-1. And before the cynics start it was a penalty ok? Two minutes later and the 3rd was in the net courtesy of a Russell header from a corner.
After that it was pretty easy going for Saints. Murray had an effort go just over and Keigan set up Fotheringham in the box only for Foxy to take too long and let the keeper save his shot. JR came on for Russell for the last 12 minutes. With 5 minutes left Foxy had a brilliant long-range effort come back off the underside of the crossbar with everyone convinced it had gone in. But we still had time to get another goal and Foxy set up Stevenson in the dying seconds - he ran through on goal and sent a low drive past the keeper to make it 4-1.
It's
hard to know what to make of the game. Cove are a decent side. But even so
there are still some bad lapses in concentration and teamwork there to
see. Having said that we are making plenty of chances and even allowing
for the reserve look about the side Saints have to be confident of having
enough depth in the squad to ride out any future injury crises (that's
another excuse gone Billy). MoM for me was Ryan Stevenson - he's looked
more and more impressive in each game and put in a lot of effort up front
today as well as getting a good goal.
So that's the "nice" games over with. Time for some real
action.
This Match Report is copyright Temple Of Saints - not to be reused without permission. Contact webmaster@grange.demon.co.uk.