Saints 4 Elgin City 0 (after extra time)
Team : Halliwell, Lawrie, Stanic, Mensing, Pamela,
James, Young, Hardie, Savo, Owen, Sheerinho
Subs : Cuthbert, Jackson, Ryan, Peaso, Dyer
Another Tuesday and we're back in the West Stand to savour the delights of the cup - tonight's feast of footballing skills and edge-of-the-seat excitement and entertainment coming courtesy of the CIS Cup. The visitors were Elgin City making their first appearance on the sacred McDiarmid turf, having shown the sort of nightmare performances in their opening games that even Saints couldn't manage. The home fans were looking for some morale boosting displays though along with a goal or six. Well in the end we got four goals but being Saints we had to wait until extra time before we saw them as despite having the majority of play and chances the strikers looked to have as much chance of scoring as Jason has of getting sympathy from a referee. But in the end, the dam of a City defence broke letting the goals flood in.
As usual there was a mixture of enforced and tactical changes in the Saints lineup. Jason sat this one out after his elbow at the weekend while for Rustybitz and McManus, injury ruled them out. Darren Sheridan was also missing with Delboy Young handed a starting jersey. With Jason missing and the strikers failing to hit the target, Owen decided to start up front alongside Savo. Ryan came out of the bad books to sit on the bench.
Saints started well enough although there wasn't much urgency in the play. It was Elgin that forced a corner in the second minute but managed to hit the ball right over the goal. Two minutes later Saints carved out the first of several chances when a chip found Savo in the box but he couldn't make room for a shot. Next up was a freekick into the box that James headed down for Mensing but again the City defence crowded out the shot. Simon was involved again when Savo played the ball in for Delboy who dummied it for Mensing but again the shot was blocked.
Owen finally got a shot in in the 11th minute. Savo won a freekick that was spread out to Goran who set up Delboy. A neat through ball found the gaffer but his shot went clear over. The boss came close after that just losing out to the Elgin keeper from a Sheerinho cross before Owen turned provider in the 13th minute for Savo but again the final shot missed the target. Two minutes after that an Owen shot was blocked for a corner. The ball came over and as usual was met by James whose header to Savo was cleared off the line with the ball eventually breaking to Sheerinho who shot, yup you've guessed it, well over.
Elgin's defence were well organised and the bodies kept blocking all our attempts on goal. The good news was that we were making chances and at times some of the build-up play especially down the left flank was sublime. On the other side, the same couldn't be said on Lawrie (a player seemingly unwilling to take more than two touches on the ball) and Delboy. But the chances were starting to at least hit the target with Hardie and Young both seeing decent shots held, James putting a header over and a good shot from Savo just wide. Defensively we were rarely troubled with Anderson showing some good form at the back. With half-time drawing closer we came close to taking the lead with a Hardie header going over and then in the 40th minute a long clearance reached Savo who won a corner. The cross found Savo at the back post but his header was again blocked. Two minutes later and you began to wonder if the Gods of Football were just taking the pish. A great Goran cross into the box was headed on by Owen for Savo and somehow a combination of his head, a couple of defenders and the crossbar kept the away goal intact. Even then it seemed the Gods weren't finished as a long ball from City on the stroke of half-time saw Halliwell caught in no-mans land only to see a looping header go wide.
For a change the second period saw Saints start with a bit more urgency. Savo saw an early header held by the keeper followed by a rare Lawrie effort easily held, as was a good cross from Stanic which was aimed at Savo. But it was Elgin who almost took the lead five minutes into the half after Anderson conceded a soft freekick. The long-range effort beat the wall but Bryn got down to it. He failed to hold onto the ball though and almost lost it as the Elgin players closed in for a rebound leaving a panicky clearance by Pamela and the City players complaining that Halliwell had impeded them. Within a minute there were more signs of Elgin coming into the game as they again broke through. It was Anderson that tracked back to clear the danger although there was again a worrying lack of understanding and trust with Halliwell as the Saints keeper again rushed out to the edge of the area.
We kept the pressure up and there was no doubt that Owen had obviously kicked some arses during the interval (which was nice cos he kicked sod all else all night...age is definitely catching up on him). But after Stanic and Sheerinho both saw good crosses go a-begging due to a lack of blue shirts in the box, Elgin made another couple of chances with an angled shot that went just over the bar. Saints hit back with another corner on the hour mark that Kevin James headed wide. That was the signal for a couple of changes with Jackson on to replace Delboy on the right flank and Peaso coming on for Owen.
James saw another header go over this time and Savo had a good shot blocked when he was free in some room as Saints began to get desperate. It's not that Elgin were that good but we just couldn't break their defence down. Peaso saw a freekick from the corner of the box go just wide. Then another freekick with 15 minutes to go was played forward for Mensing to chip into the box for Peaso but his header was brilliantly saved. Saints seemed to be more fluid now and a minute later Jackson headed the ball on for Peaso who played a neat flick through for Savo to run onto only for a good tackle to stop him in the box. Lawrie and Jackson combined to send a cross in from the right which Sheerinho hit at the back post only to see the ball cleared off the line. Jackson sidefooted a shot just wide of goal and then with 11 minutes to go Peaso found himself in room and backheeled a great short pass for Hardie but again the keeper prevented the goal. Another freekick found Sheerinho in space but his angled shot went just wide.
With the end of normal time approaching, the game had really opened up, but Elgin were also making chances of their own with a couple of dangerous crosses missed by everyone in the area and some good play ending in a shot being pulled well wide of the goal as the referee blew for the end of the ninety minutes - with a reaction from the home fans which gave voice to the frustration and torture they'd just been put through.
Extra-time started well with a Hardie cross in the first minute headed down by Savo at the keeper. Hardie himself then got onto the end of a Lawrie cross to head at the keeper. But in the 97th minute we finally, but finally broke the deadlock. Stanic had made a good run down the left channel and played a one-two with Savo before firing in a shot from the edge of the box. The keeper failed to hold the ball and Savo and Hardie went in for the rebound with the latter ending up being fouled by the goalie. Up stepped the Wizard himself and Sheerinho made no mistake to give us a 1-0 lead.
That seemed to relax Saints a bit and Mensing had a drive blocked before Hardie who'd picked up a knock at the penalty limped off to be replaced by Ryan "Out of the Cold" Stevenson who finally got a run out in the middle of the park. Saints should have doubled their lead before the break but James saw a header cleared off the line and Sheerinho's long-range effort was easily held.
The second period of extra time saw us kill off the game within a couple of minutes. One minute in and Stevenson found himself with plenty of room on the edge of the box and looking about as surprised as the rest of us at being unmarked. He turned on the ball and hit a low drive into the bottom right-hand corner before the defence could react. A couple of minutes later and we'd made it three. A long ball found Sheerinho breaking down the left wing from where he sent a high cross into the area. Too high for Peaso but Savo came into the box and met it with a downward header past the keeper.
We almost got the fourth when a long ball found Savo who set up Peaso with a neat turn but Peaso's shot was well saved. But with six minutes to go, a speculative ball into the box from the solid Simon Mensing was half-headed on by Peaso and Elgin defender Mackay catching the keeper out and landing in the back of the net with the unlucky City man credited with the own goal. Still we chased a fifth but good play from Stanic in the box saw his shot deflected with the follow-up for Stevenson seeing the Elgin keeper, Renton make a great save at the post. City thought they had their deserved rewards for a plucky performance with a good goal on the stroke of full time but the effort was chalked off for offside.
Both sides went off to deserved applause after an entertaining, albeit frustrating game. Saints still have a lot of problems with the lack of movement at times leaving us exposed and the defence unable to think beyond the long ball. There were plenty of plus points though. Mensing, Savo, Stanic and Anderson all played well but MoM for me had to be Sheerinho who along with Goran probably created 90% of our chances. Peaso looked better when he came on and James was solid (if lacking in the goalscoring ability) but Jackson and Coyle were both found wanting in their positions the latter caught out for pace several times. There's still a lot of room for improvement but at least we proved we can still find the net.
And it could be worse, we could be Aberdeen fans who saw their side go out for Billy Stark's Queens Park!!
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