Temple Of Saints - Disgusting

Bells League Division One 12/11/2005

Scumdee 2 Saints 1 League Table Here

Team : Cuthbert, Pamela, Goran, Stevenson, Rustybitz, Paterson, Henry, Sheridan, Milne, Dobbie, Sheerinho
Subs : Paston, McCann, Scrabble, Hannah, Coyle

The build-up to this game probably generated more excitement among the Saints support than any other match this season. Scumdee have arguably done a Partick and found life in Division One a lot tougher than they'd expected. And with the hygienically-challenged ones the victims of a perfect start under Alan "007" Kernaghan's secret agent, I mean, managerial reign (speaking as a completely unbiased Saintee that is), Saints went into this one fairly confident of getting a result. Unfortunately a combination of injuries before and during the match along with some blatant cheating from the scum in the home side saw us leave with nothing. It's been a long time since I've been so angry leaving a game - loding is one thing but the players, officials and fans of Dundee have a lot to learn about civilised behaviour never mind the sporting variety. And while we might have lost on goals today, at least the Saints players can for the most part hold their heads up tonight.

Things hadn't been helped with the Plague doing the rounds at McDiarmid Park, which meant that training had been on the minimal side for most of the squad this week. Jason Scotland had to forego the luxurious surroundings of Dens Park for a beach in Trinidad as he kept up our interest in the World Cup. And Simon Mensing also missed out but for the slightly less exotic reason of being suspended. It meant Ole Broken Toes had to reshuffle the Saints starting lineup for the first time in a month. At right-back, in came Pamela and while James was expected to play, he missed out with Paterson in defence. Up front Dobbie got the nod with Oweny on the bench alongside Scrabble and David Hannah returning from the doldrums. And both Savo amd Henry were passed fit to start.

With the away end packed full of the biggest travelling Saints support of the season (despite the shite turnstiles meaning a lot of fans missed the opening stages). And we got off to the most perfect of starts. Stevenson was fouled on the right wing after only two minutes. Sheridan's freekick floated into the box and Bobby Mann kindly stuck the ball into his own net. It was nearly doubled a couple of minutes later when an identical freekick was headed just over the bar by Savo. The home side hit back with a long-range effort that the Cat tipped wide.

Saints were creating the better chances and Dobbie saw a 7th minute run end in a shot blocked by Soapless Soutar. Savo pounced on the rebound but that was cleared off the line. And Soapless beat Savo to the resulting corner. If that wasn't frustrating enough the next freekick from the right again floated over to the back post. Rustybitz rose up for the header but the ball came back off the bar. It fell for Ryan but his shot was tipped over. Dundee broke up the park but a soft challenge from Stevenson ended that and a booking for the Saints player. The freekick was headed behind by Rustybitz and Anderson cleared the corner. Dobbie came close next after playing a neat one-two with Stevenson but his angled shot went just over the bar.

The inevitable desperate cheating by the home side was just around the corner though. Eighteen minutes on the clock and Dundee broke against the run of play. Lynch got through past Stanic but Cuthbert came out to smother the ball at the strikers feet. Cue the sort of dive from Lynch that you don't see outside a WW2 U-Boat movie - unfortunately it only needed to fool the referee and linesman and despite lengthy protests by Cuthbert (who wasn't even carded for what had to be a last-man challenge) the penalty was given. Lynch scored from the spot to make it 1-1.

The scum gradually got more and more into the game. Cuthbert held a corner and then in the 31st minute McManus, about a mile offside, broke through. Cat did well to come out and force him to go wide and when the cutback was sent along the goal area the eventual shot was sclaffed.

The pitch had been causing problems all afternoon with a heavily sanded surface meaning several players had problems keeping their balance. But it became more severe in the 34th minute. Scott Paterson jumped for a ball but landed awkwardly, apparently twisting his knee. There was a delay of several minutes as he received treatment before he was stretchered off. Unfortunately he was taken off in front of some home fans who demonstrated their knuckle-dragging ways by yelling abuse to the player as he was stretchered round the edge of the pitch - an absolute disgrace to football. Anyway Hannah came off the bench to replace him, moving to right-back as Pamela switched to the centre of defence.

After the disruption to play, Saints struggled to get going and it was obvious the lack of training this week was starting to show. Sheridan wasn't having the same impact in midfield. Henry had picked up a couple of knocks and he was replaced by Ryan McCann before the break. The half itself wound up with a few half-hearted attacks from Saints to no effect. Even more worrying was Dobbie putting in a poor shift, looking far too slow.

Dobbie had the first effort within a minute of the restart running onto a good through ball but unable to turn on it. Again the lack of fitness was showing with Scumdee enjoying the majority of the play. Dobbie had another shot blocked in the 55th minute and four minutes later, Savo set him up with a neat ball but Soutar came out and blocked the shot with his legs. A minute after that, McCann set up Savo but his attempt met a similar fate. Then McCann set up Dobbie but the keeper again came out to block as Dobbie was simply too slow. Dobbie had another shot blocked in the 64th minute and Dazza set up Stevenson with the rebound but his effort was easily held.

There had been the odd niggle before now with Hannah and Dazza both mixing it a bit. With 22 minutes to go Dobbie was finally sacrificed and Scrabble made his first appearance moving to the centre of midfield as McCann went wide and Stevenson partnered Savo up front.

The knocks were starting to be felt though with Rustybitz in the thick of it as usual and taking a kick to the ribs that needed attention in the 73rd minute. And a minute after that a long ball down the right from the Scumdee defence somehow found McManus who put a looping header over Cuthberts head into the net and leaving the Saints keeper on the ground in agony. It's bad enough going 2-1 down but to hear the Dens Park PA system playing "I would walk 500 miles" as play is halted and a player is plainly in agony being stretchered off is just disgusting. I hope to hell that Saints complain about this - there are enough neds causing trouble at games without needing to enflame things in this way. After a few minutes delay as he was stretchered up the tunnel Scrabble took over in goal (after borrowing Paston's jersey).

Down to ten men, Saints began to throw caution to the wind backed up by as passionate a Saints support as I've heard in a long time. Sheridan saw a freekick go wide but at the other end McDonald was booked for a cynical challenge on Scrabble as he went for a loose ball - nice to see Kernie trying to play a clean game these days. The bookings came thick and fast though with Hannah (idiotic) and Rustybitz (harsh) picking up yellow cards before Rustybitz was pushed up front. We piled on the pressure for the five minutes of injury time but never really threatened with the best effort coming from a late corner that was missed by a plethora of white shirts in the box. The "sporting" behaviour of course continued at full time with McManus gesturing to the home fans before Kernaghan dragged him up the tunnel. Sums up their scummy attitude.

For Saints we suffered from a lack of fitness on the park and I have to say Coyle takes some blame for the team selection. We never had a defender on the bench and Henry was never 100% fit and Dobbie needs to take a long hard look at himself if he's ever going to be a first-choice player. MoM for me was Rustybitz just ahead of Savo and Anderson who never gave up all day. We didn't deserve to lose but rarely threatened so perhaps a draw would have been a fairer result but then when has anything ever been fair when the Coagies were concerned.

Revenge will be ours.

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