Temple Of Saints - Saints Blow It Again

Bells League Division One 30/09/2006

Scumdee 1 Saints 1 League Table Here

Team : Halliwell, Lawrie, Stanic, Mensing, McManus, Pamela, Hardie, Sheridan, Savo, Jason, Sheerinho
Subs : Cuthbert, Peaso, McLaren, Ryan, Lawson

Nobody could have blamed Saints fans for being more than a tad nervous as they followed the smell of unwashed tinkdom eastwards to Scotland's version of Beirut, complete with semi-tropical sunshine. I mean a wee blip in form last week and countless injuries affecting the squad saw us at less than full-strength against a Scumdee side that had progressed in leaps and bounds since the opening day of the season. Add to that a referee like Freeland who wasn't exactly carrying a good reputation and memories from last season's first Dense meeting, sorry mugging, and feelings were running strong as 3pm approached. As it was, the game turned almost into a repeat of last week with Saints again looking at the result as two points dropped and again too many players wearing the sacred robes failing to meet the standards needed if we're going to challenge for the title - and unfortunately too many of the under-performers are doing it too often. Like Meadowbank last week, Scumdee were no great shakes and relied on more suicidal defending from Saints - it's getting tedious Owen.

We were once again missing Kevin James as the skipper began his enforced layoff following last Saturday's injury. His absence wasn't perhaps as significant as in the past thanks to the outstanding form shown by Pamela in recent games but there was also worries up front with Savo facing a late fitness test for his knee injury, but he was included up front. Elsewhere in the side and Oor Wullie dropped to the bench as Sheerinho moved to the left wing.

After the token Scumdonian wit of playing the Wurzels (well this is a part of Scotland that deemed George Duffus "funny") we got underway. To say it was a lively start is like saying yer average coagie has a slight distaste for Lux. We actually looked the more nervous in the first minute when Halliwell was again too slow to come out of goal and clear a loose ball. He was rounded but recovered in time to concede a corner and held the set piece. A minute later and a long throw in from Lawrie found Hardie who was blatantly shoved in the back by a Dove-dodging defender. Referee Freeland decided against Saints but was quick enough to warn Mensing for a late tackle seconds later.

Within sixty seconds the man in black infuriated the large Saints support again - this time an attempted strangulation of Jason was allowed and when we managed to get the ball out wide to Sheerinho, his run into the box was impeded - another non-award.

But the game sparked into life a few minutes later. Darren was on the end of a nasty challenge which Freeland ignored but almost immediately Lyle lashed out afterAnderson won the ball leading to a clash (possibly stamping on the Saints player). Needless to say, Freeland missed it but his assistant was there to help him out and the Scumdee striker was shown a straight red card which he accepted with all the grace and sportsmanship you'd expect from a Scumdonian thug, even pausing by the away dugout to exchange pleasantries with Jim Weir en route to the tunnel.

Andy McLaren was next to be warned by the referee as both sets of players got fired up. Saints began to press more but too many high balls and crosses were easily mopped up by the home side's centre halves. But we came close in the tenth minute. Goran's cross was headed clear as far as Mensing. His shot was blocked and deflected to Jason who played a need backheel to Sheerinho who fired in a cracking drive which brought out an excellent save from Roy to tip the ball over the bar. The corner was headed into the net by Hardie only for Freeland to chalk it off for climbing. Chances were at a premium although it was still an interesting battle in midfield with some hefty challenges go in such as Rae's 14th minute clobbering of Savo. Mensing forced a corner in the 19th minute after chasing down a long clearance and he got onto the end of the corner but headed just wide. Our defence was still a bit suspect and a minute later, Halliwell was too slow to come out for a Pamela header back and ended up going out for a corner. Sheridan cleared the danger (being chopped in the process) and found Jason who was fouled by Robertson.

Mensing set up Sheerin on a run but his shot was blocked for a corner. Saints main problem was that the majority of our attacks were being directed down the right wing where Hardie and Lawrie weren't the most effective partnership. For all that, Lawrie was instrumental in the move that led to our goal in the 26th minute. He latched onto a short pass from Jason before sending a great cross over that finally beat the Scumdee defence. The ball fell for Sheerinho unmarked at the back post and he fired a cracking volley into the roof of the net to give us the lead and start even louder singing in the away end.

Chances weren't any easier to come by although our movement in the final third was a lot better with Mensing at the heart of a lot of the play. He linked with Sheerin and Stanic in the 31st minute to allow the latter to send in another high cross but again Hardie lost out in the air - something which has happened continually over the last couple of games. Savo was through a minute later but lost out to a defender's clearance. The referee had almost been subdued for a while but Swankies continual diving earned him a booking before the interval. In fact the Scum had a decent spell of pressure for 10 minutes or so and again our defence looked open on the flanks although Mensing, Sheridan and Anderson were there to clear the danger.

Hardie tried his luck with a shot from the edge of the box in the 37th minute and although it was going well wide, it was almost deflected into the net by Savo on the edge of the 6-yard box. Hardie also had a rare header held by Roy but too many chances were going a-begging with Jason and Savo not on top of their game. At the other end, Scumdee's left back Dixon tried a long-range effort of his own and it went just wide of target.

The second-half begun with more Scumdee cheating as Andy McLaren decided to go for a record number of handballs in an attempt to fool the referee - unfortunately it worked, but fortunately it was Danny "Punt" Griffin firing in the set pieces all of which skyed well over the bar. Another Swankie dive on the touchline earned a freekick that saw McLaren stick a header just wide of Bryn's goal - the lack of marking being a real worry.

Saints were basically losing out on too many simple balls and failing to make full use of the extra man further up the park, instead willing to go for a patient build-up or let the home side come at us - I lost count of the number of times we had the ball in plenty of room yet opted for the simple pass - never mind trying to find the flank men that were usually so far from a dark blue shirt that they could almost relax quarantine regulations. We had a decent chance in the 53rd minute when Hardie was caught. The freekick was played to Savo but his shot was blocked and when Jason couldn't make room for a shot from the rebound, the ball went wide to Hardie but his cross was easily held - didn't stop Alex Rae whinging at the referee though.

McManus picked up a booking for what looked like dissent just before the hour mark. Lawson replaced Sheridan in 60 minutes and a minute later Lawrie was caught napping with a passback to Halliwell that Swankie almost got in on. Mensing headed a Lawson cross wide in the 65th minute before McLaren beat McManus to a simple long ball a minute later - Halliwell made an easy save though. Peaso replaced Savo in the 69th minute and two minutes later a Hardie cross from the right was flicked on in the box for Sheerinho at the back post but his cracking drive went just over the bar.

That was when our luck ran out and Mr Cock-up came back to haunt the defence. A simple long ball (how often was that phrase used today) down the left saw Swankie skin Lawrie, then cut back inside him leaving him trailing behind like a Whitfield beggar in the methadone queue. A simple cutback found that shite McLaren and his low drive went past Bryn into the net. Think back to the winner for Morton in the Challenge Cup and it'll give you a pretty good idea of how easily Lawrie was beaten once more. And a wee word about the home fans - how nice of them to sing such charming sectarian bile at their goal - "Huns without tickets" the lot of them.

Saints went to pieces a bit after that with the shape gone and the fight almost evaporating despite the urges from Owen on the touchline - it's perhaps times like this when the lack of leadership at the back is more noticeable. Certainly McManus isn't a shouter in the same vein as James or Rusty and there was a spell when we were badly disorganised. Alex Rae picked up his deserved booking with 15 minutes remaining - well tackled by Lawson, he reacted angrily and squared up to the Saints player only backing down when Simon Mensing came over to act as bodyguard for his teammate. Saints were pretty poor at this stage and nothing was coming off in terms of the moves. Scotland was being well crowded (and kicked) out the game and we lacked the pace or hunger to push forward with Hardie exceptionally pish on the right wing.

It wasn't until ten minutes from time that we managed a decent shot with Scotland, Hardie and Peaso all involved setting Jason up for a shot that was again blocked for a corner which yet again was wasted. Oor Wullie replaced Jason for the last five minutes but even then time had really run out with our only real chance being a Sheerin corner that Hardie headed straight to the keeper. Dundee were actually down to 9 men by this time with Harris having been stretchered off apparently after going over on his ankle with no one near him. The afternoon was probably summed up deep into injury time when Sheerin set up Hardie in space and the ex-Airdrie man just stopped and waited before trying to pass the ball - far, far too late to cause the home defence any trouble and summing up just how much we're lacking pace and vision across the park.

So a pretty disappointing afternoon although keeping the unbeaten run going and the news of Gretna's defeat has taken the edge off it a bit. MoM for me was Simon Mensing - a solid gutsy performance and at the same time doing well not to react to some of the aggro he's getting from opposition players, as well as adding some skill to his game linking up front. Anderson, Sheridan and Sheerin all did well with the latter scoring a cracking goal but the rest of the side barely rated an average - and that's not good enough given the standards we've set.

Still at least we no there's not much to fear from our Tayside rivals this season....

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