Temple Of Saints - Wake-Up Call

Bells League Division One 16/08/2003

St Midden 1 Saints 1 League Table Here

Team : Cuthbert, Robertson, Lovering, Donnelly, Dods, Maxwell, Parker, Reilly, Mixu, Bernard, Stevenson
Subs : Nelson, McCluskey, Baxter, Fotheringham, Malone

Well it's wake-up time for Saints - despite all the pre-season hype and bookies tags today we looked slow and lethargic against a well-organised Paisley mob. Of course if we'd taken our chances then we'd have had the game wrapped up in the first half but you could say the same about the home side as the continually took advantage of some extremely slow defending and slack passing from Saints. In the end the draw was a fair result but it's these sort of games that we need to win to get any sort of momentum going. Bugsy Malone was the scapegoat from Tuesday night, dropping to the bench to allow Ryan the Rocket on and he went to right midfield with El Sid crossing to the other side of the park. Apart from that it was as you were from the Saints side - so they should be developing an understanding shouldn't they? You know, like passing, movement off the ball? Billy Stark obviously thought so as well going by the ranting from the sidelines in the last 10 minutes 2nd half as we struggled to hang onto a point.

In fact we were lucky that the game was still goalless after a minute when St Mirren, not for the first time broke down our left and Ricky Gillies, having left Lovering trailing and with Maxie struggling to cover saw a low drive across goal go just wide for a corner. That was just a hint of how suspect the back four were to be. Two minutes later Stevenson (looking way out of his depth) gave away a stupid free kick - Gillies sent it well over the bar though. And if you though we couldn't look any dafter, the first through ball for Parker saw the striker kicking at air as he totally missed the ball in front of the home fans.

The early stages were fairly even although the football wasn't great. We forced a few corners but the Paisley defence kept getting in the way with Bernard, Lovering and El Sid all having shots. Even when we did get the ball in the net in the 9th minute Mixu's header was chalked off for offside. St Midden had their chances though with Maxwell making a few mistakes forcing the Cat into some early action. Of course it wouldn't be a normal game against the unwashed Pseudo- Wegies if there weren't some hefty challenges going in. Robbo was first to suffer after Gus (as in Gorilla) McPherson hacked him down and then on the quarter hour mark Lovering proved it's not just Clyde fans he wants to annoy this season with a late challenge on Gillies.

Five minutes later Saints made their first substitution when Reilly went off to be replaced by Foxy. I couldn't see any sign of injury but ice was soon out of the tunnel so you have to assume it wasn't tactical. But it was Parker that was doing all our running. Cross after cross went into the home box but Mixu and Bernard were unable to get on the end of any of them.

Our best chance came after 25 minutes when another Keigan run forced a corner. Foxy's kick was headed out to Lovering but his shot was cleared out to Parker at the back post and his chip was just wide of goal. Two minutes later Lovering was in the thick of things again as Gillies went in to take him out (and we're not talking a date down the Paisley Palais either). But even worse was to come in 29 minutes when poor Lovering and Maxwell defending let O'Neill through on an open goal. Under pressure from the Saints defence he managed to screw his shot wide though but it should have served as a wake-up call for Saints. The play went straight up the other end and some good linking play from Sid, Bernard and Foxy set up Parker only for a weak shot to be easily held.

Both sides had a series of corners after that (St Mirren a couple and Saints 4 or 5) but we were unable to capitalise. A Maxie header to Bernard saw the midfielder set up Parker only for offside to be given and then another one saw Maxie head the ball out where Dods let rip with about as weak a volley as you can imagine.

So you'd expect another half-time kick up the arse then? No such luck - sure we kept up the pressure but seemed unable to create any clear-cut chances. A Foxy free kick to Bernard found Parker but his effort was blocked and then as the St Mirren defence began to panic (how bad is Kevin McGowne these days?) we still couldn't make things count with Donnelly and Mixu unable to keep any pressure up. In 50 minutes Stevenson limped off to be replaced by Baxter on the right. Saints looked a bit more fired up and were keeping the Paisley mob pinned down but unable to make it count. Crilly picked up the first booking of the game for a late challenge on Parker which led to 2 free kicks in succession (Alan Russell picking up another yellow for breaking the wall too soon the first time). The 2nd was taken by Lovering after a neat dummy by Foxy but despite it going through the wall it was an easy save for Hinchcliffe.

The next chance came after the hour when Mixu had a good flick down and Foxy hit a cracking drive which was deflected out for a corner. From the corner headers galore and shots went in but all were blocked as Sid, Bernard and Mixu failed to find a way through. But in 61 minutes after St Mirren had broken up the park we broke the deadlock with a cracking goal. A long ball from Robbo went over the defence to find Keigan who hit a neat backheel flick to get the ball behind his marker. He sprinted into the box and from a narrow angle 8 yards out hit a cracking drive in off the top of the net. 1-0 us, the home fans shut up and we await the next goal.

Except the minor problem was the next goal was at the other end. St Mirren pressure from the restart forced a corner and with Saints (similar to last week) taking too long to clear their lines or find their man - and God knows they had enough chances - the ball came to O'Neill on the edge of the box and he hit a shot through a crowded area into the net to even things up.

The game livened up after that as both teams went in search of the winner. A free-kick into the box found Sid unable to turn and shoot and then a cross from the right was flicked across the box by Maxwell to the unmarked Mixu at the back post but his volley went well over the bar. Parker had a run next and his cross to El Sid in the box ended in another shot blocked.

And with 15 minutes left we should have taken the lead. Mixu was fouled on the half-way line. The free-kick came into the box and was cleared wide. The cross back in was headed down towards goal by Mixu and tipped wide by Hinchcliffe. Then from the corner Mixu rose unchallenged for another header which the keeper tipped over the bar. The next one came in and Maxwell's header was held by Hinchcliffe despite a heavy challenge from Dods. But that was about it as we switched to a 3-4-3 with El Sid heading up front and Robbo going to left-midfield in search of a winner. Unfortunately all St Midden's attacks had been down that flank and with Robbo continually wrong-footed and apparently unable to pass (along with Maxie) the pressure was on including one mistake from Maxwell which led to a 3 on 3 break and only a great save from the Cat kept the score at one apiece. To the management's credit even Stark had a major rant from the touchline in the closing stages as our form and confidence deserted us.

Overall it was our poorest performance of the season. Having said that MoM Parker was again outstanding and his goal was a candidate for goal of the month. But Bernard and El Sid were poor and slow in midfield whilst in defence we looked edgy and nervous. Lovering doesn't look much better than Flash was and Mixu was struggling to win anything today.

Still we play this poorly, manage to get a point and we're top of the league - not that bad a day really.

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