Saints 0 Ferranti 1
Team : Main, Robbo, Murray, McCann, Dods, Maxwell, Hay,
Reilly, Hartley, Paddy, Keigan
Subs : Cuthbert, Marco, McClune, Stevenson, Ferry
So much for getting our hopes up but in the end you can be sure of one thing - the papers will have a wee mention for us and all the praise for Livvy. But if they want to worship a team that sees nothing wrong in raising their hands (either to their opponents or to stop the ball going our) and whinging at every decision then it says a lot for Scottish football. Mind you if you want to talk about whingers, the 2 foul-mouthed moaning arseholes that had a complaint about everything tonight are a good place to start. Just the sort of fans Saints don't need.
As for tonight's team well both Paddy and Robbo managed to start the game although the replacement of Flash by Troy McClune on the bench seemed to suggest some cover for the right-back position. The rest of the side remained in the same 4-3-3 formation that got the win at Alloa last weekend.
From the start Saints began to dominate the game and within the first minue Chris Hay reacted to a McCann chest down in the box only for his shot to be screwed well over the bar. Two minutes later and JR went on a run through the middle before being obstructed by Broto. Then came the hilarity as twice JR took the free kick only to send the ball over the bar as the Meadowbank wall broke. Ref Tom Brown lost patience and booked Brinquin before ordering another retake of the kick. Unsurprisingly JR showed his creativity once more - same shot same result. We were causing problems though. Paddy and Hay combined well on the left with Paddy forcing a corner. The corner came over, was knocked back and forth before being sent across the goalmouth only to be missed by Robbo.
A couple of minutes later and a great Dods through ball ended up with Keigan catching and nicking it from Lardboy despite giving the fat git a 10 yard start. Again though his cross saw no one in the box - the lack of support for any attacks a real problem. Broto was finally forced into making a great save in 14 minutes. McCann set up Robbo on the right wing. He cut inside and across to the middle of the park before letting rip with a 25-yard low LEFT footed drive which the Ferranti Works XI keeper only just tipped wide. A minute later and Main showed he was just as good when a Ferranti free-kick into the box saw Andrews get a great header in which Main dived to tip wide.
By this time though Livvy had just been limited to a few long-range shots as Saints dominated midfield. Our best chance came in 24 minutes when McCann sent a chip forward to Hay. Andrews reached it first but his headed backpass was too short and Hay broke through on goal. Fair enough Broto came out to narrow the angle but the Saints striker hesitated and ended up trying to round the keeper instead of letting rip with a shot - in the end both he and Paddy managed to lose the ball. Livvy forced Main into a couple of saves from some dangerous corners whilst a Keigan cross for us was met by Paddy but he was ruled to be offside.
On the half-hour the game spilt over when Xausa went in late on Robbo. As both players stood the Ferranti thug raised his hands - nothing too dramatic but IMHO a red card offence. Of course Livvy are everyone's darlings so Brown only yellow-carded the striker - bad mistake number one.
We had a couple of chances before the break. Keigan got onto one in 43 minutes but took too long over the shot and ended up sending the ball over the bar. Then Reilly had a decent shot saved on the stroke of half-time.
The second half saw Brinquin and Xausa off and Bingham and McNamee on for the Shellsuit Shams. Saints started as brightly though. Paddy won a corner in 47 minutes and from it Reilly saw a decent shot deflected wide. Two minutes later and JR passed to Maxwell whose crossfield ball found Keigan at the far post and he sent a cheeky chip just wide of the goal.
The Shellsuit Shams were still making chances though. Makel saw a shot go just wide. Saints were playing well enough but more and more high balls were being used as we began to run out of ideas. Dadi picked up a deserved yellow in 55 minutes for throwing the ball away whilst McNamee caused some problems for Maxwell and forced Main into a great save as he got a decent ball in from their right wing.
We didn't heed the warning though and after some soft corners, they hit a similar low ball in from the right, past 3 outstretched Saints defenders and Main only for Dadi to reach it and tap it home to make it 1-0 to the Works XI. The Saints defence looked nervous for a while after the goal. Lardboy performed his umpteenth assault on Keigan 5 minutes later and picked up a yellow but the ref then missed a similar assault on Hay by Andrews a minute later.
Stevenson replaced Paddy but more attention was on the grudge matches developing. McNamee squared up to JR at one point - but with heads inches apart and Hartley obviously backing off the ref did nothing more than have a word with the pair of them before booking Reilly for a soft foul. By now though Saints were starting to look tired - especially Hay and McCann who had both run their arses off. Ferry replaced Reilly with 8 minutes to go and a minute later we nearly drew level when the ball was sent over to the back post and Hay's chip was tipped to the side by Broto, just in time for the Livvy defender to stop it going out - *WITH HIS FUCKING HAND*. Of course Brown the ref didn't spot it - bad mistake no 2.
That was it for Saints - Livvy had some pressure at the end - Zarate had a decent shot blocked by Dods (cue for the moaners behind me to go on about how Dods should have tackled him first) and Murray picked up a very soft yellow for a tackle on Wilson - the one where it took 10 seconds for the Ferranti Cheat to eventually collapse onto the pitch. A similar Zarate challenge on Murray seconds later ended in no card being issued - that about summed up the night.
MoM was close again - most of the Saints players had good performances. McCann gets my vote though (just ahead of ahem Mr P Connolly) for putting in a good shift and providing the attacking midfield we've been missing - especially with Hartley seemingly content to sit back all day. As to how much this will determine Stark's future is hard to say - it was a good fighting performance but the team did struggle to break Livvy down. If we'd scored in the first half (or Xausa had seen Livvy down to 10 men) I've no doubt we'd have won comfortably. As it is though the doubts about the management will linger on a bit yet.
Finally - I'm cheering for the Arabs in the 1/4 final. That's how much I hate Shellsuit Cheats.
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