Saints 1 Falkirk 2
Team : McGregor, Pamela Anderson, Forsyth, Hannah,
Rutkiewicz, Maxwell, McCann, Fotheringham, Peaso, Moore, McConalogue
Subs : Cuthbert, Sheerin, Baxter, McManus, Fraser
Okay so some might be thinking of this as the diddy cup these days but let's face it when semi-finals for Saints are about as rare as a coherent post-match conference from Yogi you have to savour them when they come along. Well except when you have to put up with the sort of half- hearted, disorganised, uninspirational, unadulterated crap that the home fans saw tonight. Plain and simple it was just not acceptable to have to put up with that from players privileged to wear the colours of Saints. And while the players will receive plenty of well-deserved criticism, the lack of tactical awareness that we saw tonight is also at least partly the fault of the management. Changes are long overdue.
Saints had Maxie available for selection after his period in the stand and he started in central defence with Fozzy moving up to join Hannah and McCann in midfield with JC opting to hand starting jerseys to the three strikers in Moore, McConalogue and hero of the Partick game, Peaso. For the one-stand wonders Donkey Ferguson started in goal while Yogi was defrosted in defence in place of the injured Campbell.
The crowd wasn't the most inspiring with plenty of the die-hards (who'd no doubt expect tickets if by some miracle Saints ever got to a final), electing to be brainwashed into watching the over-rated SPL prima donnas on the telly. Still they missed out on an excellent start from Saints with some good pressure from the 3-man forward line turned into a goal after 5 minutes. Peaso forced a corner on the far side. From it the ball was flicked on at the near post. That man Peaso was there to head the ball back across goal from the back post. It beat Donkey and met the head of the incoming Rutkiewicz who made no mistake in sticking it into the back of the net.
The next chance came three minutes later when Anderson neatly set up McConalogue on the right but his shot went across the goal. Then another Saints corner found the unmarked Peaso in the area but he sclaffed his shot and though the ball fell to McCann his shot was easily held. So with Saints enjoying their customary 10 minutes of decent football that we usually expect over the full ninety it was time for the sucker punch. Step forward Mr Latapy - a dreadlocked key midfield player wearing Falkirk colours to dish out tonight's lesson to Saints. By the way, that hairstyle description was for the benefit of those employees of Saints who failed to recognise him on the park tonight - I mean how else can you explain the utter abject failure of Saints to mark the opposition danger man. Like I said, tactical awareness wasn't overly prominent in the home dressing-room tonight. Christ even Sellik probably tried to tackle him more when they were winning 8-1.
Anyway back to the forthcoming sucker punch and sure enough right on cue the 11th minute saw Falkirk gifted an equaliser. Latapy The Unmarked was given all the room he needed to play a pass forward (another radical new concept that for our midfield) to Duffy who had gotten behind both Forsyth and Maxwell and had a simple finish to make it 1-1.
Two minutes later and the Saints gameplan went down the toilet as Peaso went down with a deadleg. He tried to run it off but was struggling and went off ten minutes later to be replaced by Chippy Fraser as Saints reverted to a 4-4-2 formation. About the only consolation was that it's not a serious injury. Before that though Fozzy tried a long-range effort that Donkey spilled - needless to say there wasn't a blue shirt following up. Then at the other end Latapy The Unmarked set up Duffy with an almost identical pass that led to the goal. This time though the striker's effort went across goal and was desperately cleared by Rutkiewicz.
McConalogue had a couple of shots held before we nearly regained the lead in the 31st minute. Some neat play on the right by Pamela and McCann led to the latter sending in a good cross that McConalogue got his head to but Donkey tipped wide. Falkirk hit back almost immediately with a Duffy header that went wide as yet again You-Know-Who was left unmarked. It was kid's stuff now as the entire Saints midfield seemed happy to sit back in their own area and try to soak up the pressure.
If you didn't know any better you'd have thought we were somewhere like the Death Star and playing for a draw than trying to win a bloody cup semi-final in front of our own fans. If you were looking for the hungrier side on the park, suffice to say we looked like we'd just demolished a five-course meal with several kebabs for an after-dinner snack - and come to think of it, the midfield looked that way as well. Anyway the hungrier side went on the attack although Duffy was a little too eager going in on McGregor six minutes from the break and earning a booking for his trouble. O'Neil, Nicholls and That Unmarked Bloke all managed shots just wide of or on the Saints goal before the interval as Saints looked beat.
Flash, who seemed to pick up a slight knock towards the end of the half was replaced at the interval by McManus with Fozzy dropping back to the defence. A Moore cross that McConalogue just missed out on was as good as it got when the second-half got under way. Straight after that, Falkirk were on the attack with a Nicholls shot going wide. Rutkiewicz had a shot blocked in the 55th minute when he got onto the end of a McCann cutback but we lacked any sort of inspiration or leadership on the park.
McGregor held another Nicholls effort on the hour before a display from our skipper that just typified Saints tonight. Captain Courageous had a run (i.e. 3 steps) in the middle of the park punted the ball forward. Fair enough but when You-Know-Bloody-Who took the ball from defence and broke back up the park he waltzed past the Saints captain - WHO WAS WALKING BACK TOWARDS HIS OWN GOAL. Even Reilly was more interested in playing for Saints than Hannah - Christ even Peter Fyhr was!! In fact I'm sure that Rustybitz spent more time in the opposition goalmouth tonight than our so-called experienced skipper. I'm now fairly convinced that if David Hannah was Captain of the Starship Enterprise the Klingons would have had a walkover. It's beyond a joke.
It wasn't much of a surprise when Falkirk took the lead with the goal that was to prove the winner. A mix-up with Anderson and Rustybitz ended with us conceding a soft corner - giving the Saints defence plenty of time to argue rather than organise themselves (oops the dreaded "o"-word). The corner came over and Lawrie hit a downward header past the keeper and into the net. 2-1 and game over in all but time as Falkirk started to tear us to pieces.
McCann was replaced by Sheerin with 17 minutes to go. Yet another of the experienced players whose contribution tonight consisted of one freekick into the box which went well out of play, getting a stupid booking and fouling Latapy needlessly (about the only time a Saints player tried to close him down). Yet again it's just not good enough - at least with youngsters such as McManus, McCann and Fraser we have the effort and the hunger - a bit of leadership might make all the difference.
Rusty also picked up a yellow card for a challenge on a Bairn although strangely the Falkirk player's raised arms in retaliation went without comment from McCurry - it was just one of those nights. McGregor blocked a shot from You-Know-Who ten minutes from time whilst at the other end Rusty set up Moore who laid the ball into the path of Stef and his shot was tipped wide. McGregor made another couple of saves to keep the score respectable whilst Kevin James got off with a handball on the edge of the box. And to round things off Moore went down in the Falkirk area and earned a booking for his troubles.
MoM for me was Rustybitz. IMHO he should be made skipper since he's one of the few willing to take responsibility on the park. Apart from him, only Stef and RobRoy get pass marks. Of the rest there was a lot of huffing and puffing from some (Moore, the youngsters, Maxwell, McCann) but there are too many passengers in the Saints side just now and not enough drivers.
Looks like Partick was a false dawn after all - welcome to the rest of the hellish season.....
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