Temple Of Saints - Saints Do Enough

Bells League Division One 22/04/2006

Saints 1 Accies 1 League Table Here

Team : Glennon, Ryan, Goran, Pamela, Rustybitz, James, Mensing, Sheridan, Owen, Scotland, Sheerinho
Subs : Cat, McCallum, Winter, Henry, Dyer

After the disappointment of last weekend and the ending of a good unbeaten league run, today was always going to have an air of anti- climax about it. But there was still plenty to play for against a Hamilton side that had also been on a good run. A point today was going to be enough to secure second place and, perhaps just as importantly mean a seeding in the CIS cup next season (assuming Gretna miss out on Europe)- imagine being that optimistic that we can dream of a cup run - that's the sort of turnaround we've witnessed in the last twelve months. And just for a change we managed to finalise second place without too many nervous moments although in keeping with tradition we left it late before Simon "Gunther" Mensing scored a late equaliser to get the draw which was the least we deserved from a fairly drab end-of-season affair.

Ole Triple-M (Mad Mental Martin) was suspended after his red card at Palmerston and Henry and Savo were both missing due to injury so in came Pamela at the back with Mensing moving to midfield and some old git called Coyle drafted in up front in a desperate attempt to break his duck for the season. Youngster Neil McCallum stepped up to the bench as well.

Saints got off to the worst possible start. Less than a minute on the clock and we were behind. A quick Accies break through the middle left the Saints defence floundering and when Glennon failed to hold onto the ball, McArthur had a simple finish to give them the lead. But to the lads' credit the heads didn't go down and a couple of minutes later the pressure almost paid off. Good work from Mensing on the wing ended in a cross. Sheerin fired in a shot from the back post which McEwan did well to block. A minute later and Jason flicked a clearance back in for the gaffer, but Owen hit the ball wide.

The wind was causing plenty of problems but Saints weren't helping their cause by playing so many high balls for the strikers. We thought we'd drawn level in the eighth minute though. Goran forced a corner and from Dazza's kick, the ball broke to Sheerinho on the edge of the box and he fired in a spectacular volley that rebounded off the post. It fell for Owen and he had an easy finish only for that bane of Saintees the Linesman from Hell to once more strike and waive the offside flag. Cue an outpouring of expressive feelings from the East Stand.

Still we kept going and some good build-up play ended with a low Ryan shot held in the 12th minute. The overall play was slow though with several players looking tired after a long season - too often the neat passes weren't coming off because the intended recipient had lost that bit of pace and sharpness. For all that though, there was still some neat passing when we did get forward. And we were making chances - Jason and Ryan linking well in the 22nd minute to set up Owen for a shot which was held. Four minutes later and Rustybitz sent a long freekick into the box for James to head down, but Owen but he was too slow to connect.

Sheerin and Mensing tried their luck only for their attempts to be blocked or else fail to find a blue shirt. Then, just before the break we were awarded a freekick on the edge of the Accies area after a Scotland cross had been handled. After eventually getting the ball to sit in the strong wind, Dazza's low drive was a bit of a disappointment and didn't really test the keeper. Hamilton went up the park and should have stretched their lead after winning the ball on the right. The final shot beat Glennon but hung allowing James to clear the danger.

The second-half had a much quieter start. An early Rustybitz freekick found Jason who in turn tried to set up Coyle but again the final ball was too strong. Our best chance came in the 57th minute with a good through ball which found Coyle in the box. He fired in an excellent shot from a tight angle that the keeper somehow managed to tip wide for a corner. Dazza set it over and Rustybitz rose up at the back post with a powerful header that was well saved. Accies hit back with a freekick which beat the Saints defence but ended in a shot going across the goal and just wide as the game sparked into life.

Dazza picked up the first booking for dissent in the 63rd minute after he disagreed with the referee's view on an attempted assault on him. Two minutes after that and a Juanjo hack on Goran which went uncarded gave us a freekick in a good position. Dazza sent the ball into the area but Ryan knocked it back out for Rustybitz and his low shot was just wide of the post. Next up was some good build-up play from Jason and Sheerinho that ended in the latter having a cracking drive blocked and when the rebound cross went over Mensing could only header it over the bar.

Winter came on for the ineffectual Stevenson for the last twenty minutes and within 60 seconds we were almost reduced to 10 men as Rustybitz reacted angrily to a tackle on him. Handbags at dawn stuff but after last weekend's examples it wasn't the smartest thing to do and there was a bit of relief that it ended with a yellow. Accies came close just after that as James failed to clear a freekick and the ball broke to Tunbridge but this time Glennon was alert enough to hold the shot. Saints broke up the park through Jason and when he was brought down Accies were let off as Steven Thomson only saw yellow when he looked like the last man. The freekick was cleared up the park and this time Glennon pulled off a great save from a speculative Fleming long-ranger which took a nasty bounce en route to goal.

Scrabble replaced Dazza and Neil McCallum came on for his debut in place of Anderson for the last 10 minutes as Saints chased an equaliser. And with seven minutes to go a freekick to Sheerinho in the area was half- cleared only as far as Big Gunther on the edge of the box and Mensing's low drive although it didn't look too powerful did enough to beat McEwen and nestle in the bottom corner. Second place for us and game almost over. Accies threw everything at us with Billy Reid doing his best O'Neill-The- Bouncing-Leprechaun impression on the edge of the technical area but to no avail with their best effort a free header from Torres on the stroke of full- time that sailed over the bar.

Not the prettiest of performance and given the number of players on the park whose futures aren't exactly certain in relation to Saints it was a bit disappointing. But in the end we did enough with Mensing easily MoM for another solid performance. Jason, Sheerin and Rustybitz all did well and at least there is plenty to be optimistic about going into the summer (once we've spoilt that party next weekend)

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