Temple Of Saints - Nae goals, Nae fitba

Bells League Division One 11/12/2004

Airdrie 0 Saints 0 League Table Here

Team : McGregor, Anderson , Tait, Hannah, Webb, Maxwell, McCann, Sheerin, Moorie, Peaso, Keyring
Subs : Cuthbert, Hay, Rutkiewicz, Hardy, Stevenson

That's the third time we've taken on the Lovers of Buckfast this season, and today saw a return to the delights on New Broomfield and it's safe to say that it's as big a dump in the mists of winter that in the summer sunshine. Unfortunately the action on the park matched it with Saints showing a worrying return to the route one tactics of earlier in the season. In the end though a draw was a fair result so there can't be too many complaints and as an added bonus the Saints players survived 90 minutes of officiating by Charlie Richmond without a card being shown - who said this wasn't the season of miracles?

Despite Kevin "He's a very naughty boy" Rustybitz having done his time in the cooler he failed to dislodge Spiderman from the job of marking a certain Sellik-daft striker and had to settle for a place on the bench. Otherwise it was an unchanged side from the Plunderers of Partick with Peaso and Ravey Davey Hannah recovering from their minor flesh wounds. And with an unchanged starting eleven the only other tweak on the bench saw Ryan Stevenson brought in from the cold in place of McManus. Charlie Richmond was in charge which meant we were up against it from the start given his prior prolific distribution of scarlet cards towards Saints. And despite keeping his cards in his pocket he still managed to ensure he made enough soft decisions to guarantee that any hopes of some entertainment were pretty well squashed. As it was a shaky Saints defence and a midfield unable or unwilling to run with the ball meant a poor first half. Airdrie had a couple of early freekicks cleared while we were limited to a Maxie flick on that Peaso failed to make contact with.

In fact it wasn't until the 7t minute that someone managed a shot that came anything like near the target. An Airdrie corner was cleared by Ravey Davey Hannah but found it's way back to McLaren whose volley went over RobRoy's goal. Keyring rounded off a good break involving Peaso and Moorie in the tenth minute but his final cross sailed behind the goal. The same player saw another run two minutes later end in a bodycheck. Moorie saw his run end in a foul for Airdrie and the Peaso entertained the away support by taking the complete piss out of Lovering to win a corner. But typical of the afternoon it was easily dealt with by the home defence.

Airdrie had an excellent chance to take the lead in the 22nd minute after Sheerin was harshly penalised on the edge of the box in a 50-50 ball. After a few minutes build-up which saw plenty of shoving in the Saints wall, the freekick was hit low under the wall and forced RobRoy into a brilliant save.

The referee began to lose control of the game after that. Jordan was elbowed in the face but no card was shown then Lovering feigned injury after a Moorie challenge - again no booking despite the referee running half the length of the pitch to lecture him. Chances on the park were fairly limited with a couple of McCann freekicks floated into the box but ended in a Spiderman header being saved.

The game turned into a pretty dour midfield battle after that with flowing football or even accurate passing at a premium. The Saints midfield was sitting way too deep and we totally failed to make any progress down the flanks. Sheerin and Hannah didn't have the same control in the centre that had been in evidence in the last couple of games and Moorie and Peaso just weren't getting the breaks up front. The half ended with Airdrie putting a fair bit of pressure on the Saints defence which struggled to clear their lines with Pamela and Jordan caught napping and any loose balls going to a white shirt. And the last action of the half saw RobRoy called into action to tip a dangerous cross over the bar.

The rain had started in time for the second half with Saints still as disjointed as before but at least they looked a bit more awake. Five minutes after the restart, Peaso set up Moorie but his shot went out for a goalkick. Keyring had another good break down the left but his pass to Moorie was adjudged to be offside. Airdrie fought back and a quick break down the wing saw the ball played over to the near post where an unmarked white shirt was there to drive the ball only for it to rebound back off the post. The game was a lot more open though even if it seemed that the majority of Saints attacks were doomed to end up in a dodgy offside decision. In fact the closest we got to any real excitement was another clash between Moorie and Lovering on the hour mark - the ref spoke to both players and kept the cards in the pocket.

As the game wore on it was obvious that a single goal was more than likely to seal the points for either side. Peaso had a good turn and shot but his effort was blocked by a defender. Then in the 65th minute the Saints striker went on a fantastic run which saw him beat 6 or 7 opponents only for the final shot to be blocked. The same thing happened when we won a series of corners with the killer touch apparently drowned in the drizzle. Airdrie seemed to be happy to hit us on the break or wait patiently for a mistake from the Saints players. With 13 minutes to go they had a good chance to snatch a winner when a quick break saw them with a spare man but RobRoy made a great block with his legs to stop the low drive. And we had another let off three minutes after that when a low cross across the Saints goalmouth was just missed by a Sellik-daft striker.

Chris Hay came on for Peaso for the last ten minutes and with 5 minutes left, nearly repeated his exploits of last Saturday. Keyring made a good run down the left and dummied his marker. He sent a great cross into the box which was headed onto the back post area. Chris Hay was there and belted in a cracking shot but it just missed the target - and let's face it if it had gone in it would have been more than we deserved. In the end we settled for a point as the last few attacks petered out.

Given Airdrie's form and the doom and gloom we all felt on seeing the referee, I suppose a point isn't a bad result - certainly it's stopped them gaining any more ground on us. And a clean sheet helps matters with Webb my Man of the Match in what was a pretty poor selection. But when you look at who we face next week and the small matter of revenge needed for earlier in the season, let's just hope the players are more up to it than today.

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