Temple Of Saints - She's not singing yet!

Bells League Division One 07/04/2007

Gretna 0 Saints 2 League Table Here

Team : Halliwell, Anderson, Goran, McInnes, McManus, James, Morais, Hardie, Peaso, Jason, Sheerin
Subs : O'Brien, McLaren, Jackson, Lawrie, Lilley

After a long hard season, Saints were now in the last chance saloon knowing that any more mistakes between now and the end of the season would gift the title to the Village People. And despite the attentions of the fans switching to the small matter of a trip to Hampden next weekend, there was still the league to worry about today. More importantly, ensuring that we took all three points and at least avoided the humiliation of gifting the "Dream Machine" the chance to progress easily to the wondrous delights that are offered by the SPL. Even leaving title dreams aside, there was also the need to get back to the sort of consistency in our form that we've lacked in recent weeks and to avoid this defensive mentality attitude which seems to have become the norm, especially in the second- half. Most of us have our tickets for Hampden but we need a little bit of faith restored after the rubbish served up last week and there was no better time to do it than today, and Saints more than did that in abundance with a confident display against a Gretna side that looked as rusty as their shambles of a terracing (all those millions and they can't afford proper toilets?). Even when we were unjustly reduced to ten men, the lads didn't let up and thoroughly deserved our win. It's a pity that their home fans weren't around for the final whistle as they kept up the TFOD impressions (right down to some of them even wearing the tops of the Ibrox side in some strange yokel ritual). But never fear, there was a good travelling support there to back Saints (and spoil the media's big party) and keep the title hopes alive beyond the semi-final.

With Simon Mensing still suspended, he was joined in the stand by the Cat who had suffered from the incompetence of Mr Smith last weekend. That meant a rare start for Bryn Halliwell between the sticks with young Gordon O'Brien taking over on the bench. Elsewhere there were no changes from the sixteen from last week with the injury worries easing and Owen, despite having Hampden to think about, sticking with his strongest side. The Village People were without Main as he remained out of favour while Barr missed out after a red card at Airdrie. Still the delightful skills of such world-class (in wages at least) players like Davie Nicholls and Coagey Grady were there to entertain the fans. As for the surroundings, Raydale would be a disgrace to the third division never mind the first with a policing policy which didn't see any problem with only a couple of stewards separating some boozed up local neds from the Saints support. At least the playing conditions were almost perfect with one of the nicest playing surfaces we've seen in a while.

For a first-half start, Saints were fairly nervous to begin with and Gretna had the early pressure although there was little to threaten Saints. We were looking shaky as the likes of Graham and McMenamin looked lively against us but for all their hard work, there was little in the way to cause us problems. Unfortunately the same can't be said about Kenny Clark who once more proved to us how inept the so-called top rank of officials are in the Scottish game. A challenge from Hardie in the sixth minute (surprisingly about his first of the game) saw the Mad Mental one get a booking although both Skelton and Nicholls managed to get involved and escaped without even the merest hint of a warning.

Still after the shaky early stage, we began to get back into the game and a great run from Scotland in the eighth minute saw him cut inside from the left and lay the ball off for Hardie (when we all expected the shot) who was at the edge of the box and his neat chip shot was deflected just wide of Zebedee's goal. In came the corner and up rose Captain Kev but his header was cleared. Not much admittedly but given the hype for the home side in the pre-match build-up it gave us some hope (pre-match team talk from Bobby Robson included). Two minutes later though we almost went behind after the Saints defence stood off the home attack and a long- range shot had Halliwell beat but came back off the crossbar, before the defence headed it out for a corner. We looked more comfortable with the corner with Halliwell having an easy catch.

Saints were starting to get more into the game and Hardie set up Morais for another good run down the right wing in the eleventh minute and he set up Jason in the box only for Scotland to dribble the ball out for a goal kick. At least we were trying these sort of skills and three minutes later another good ball from defence found Jason on the left. He set up Sheerinho who was in plenty of room on the wing and his cross was almost met by Peaso who rose up with Zebedee in the box with the Gretna goalie picking up an injury in the process although he was able to carry on after some treatment. Next up was a lovely long crossfield ball from Goran to Morais on the opposite flank but Filipe's good run was ended early by a challenge from Innes which earned the Gretna skipper a booking.

Peaso had a long-range attempt go over the bar a minute later and the Jason set up Filipe on a run only for the winger to be blatantly obstructed. He came closer in the twentieth minute as a deep Sheerinho cross found his head at the back post but the ball went just wide of target. Jason won a corner just after that and from it the ball eventually broke to Sheerinho who fired in a good low drive that the keeper held. But a minute later it was smiles all round (apart from our Ibrox-loving colleagues in the home end). A long ball found Jason at the edge of the box and when it seemed like we were heading for another wasted pass he brilliantly turned Canning before playing a low drive past the keeper and into the bottom corner of the net. You could almost see Irons applying for a stress management course.

Suddenly we were looking a lot more confident and the passing and movement from midfield was a lot sharper with plenty of pace on the flanks which Gretna were just unable to cope with. Filipe had a great run and cross held in the 28th minute as he turned in another great performance on the wing. Gretna had a freekick in the 34th minute but the ball went straight into Bryn's hands. A minute later they forced a corner but the resulting shot from that had about as much chance of hitting the target as Nicholls has of winning a beauty contest. And Mr Nicholls provided us with even more entertainment a minute later after some poor Saints defending ended up in the ball breaking to Nicholls who managed to hit the ball at right angles to send it out - the sort of sclaff that costs games really. Saints finished the half strongly with Filipe having a great run before ending up in a shot that Zebedee managed to hold. Meanwhile the nerves and discipline were looking shaky for the home players and McMenamin for some reason got up off the deck at one point and shoved Kenny Clark - again he was just spoken to when we all expected a card to be shown by Mr Stickler.

That was even more noticeable a couple of minutes before the break when Filipe had another good run on the right before cutting inside. Clark ruled for a foul against Skelton and after kicking the ball away Morais picked up a booking for his trouble - something which was to become a lot more telling later on. But for all that there were more reasons to smile amongst the away fans as the half drew to a close with Morais setting up Peaso who played a wonderful flick through for Jason who got behind the defence, broke into the box and coolly slotted the ball under Zebedee to make it two-nil with the sort of finish that made you think the scouts were watching him again. Even then we could have increased our lead in injury time after Sheerinho had a good long-range shot blocked.

The home side went for broke after the break with a triple substitution and almost immediately they were pressing us and within a minute Stanic had been left for dead on the wing with only McManus clearing the danger. Gretna forced a corner as the game livened up and they pressed to try and match our skill and from it they should have drawn level as McMenamin (my God he's an ugly shite) had acres of space for a free header that went over the bar when it seemed easier to score. We began to get back though and a good run by Goran in the 50th minute saw him cross for Filipe but the referee in his anti-Saints mode decided that Morais had handled the ball. There was a bit of a clash of personalities after that and Peaso and Nicholls were both spoken to. Two minutes later though some great play from Saints saw us passing the ball about well and McInnes set up Sheerinho who in turn laid the ball off to the left for the unmarked Peaso but he managed to sclaff the ball well wide of target.

A minute later and Goran sent in a great cross from the left for Morais but his header was held by Zebedee. The chances kept on coming though and ten minutes into the half a long Sheerinho ball found Scotland on the touchline and his run was great before he cut in and squared the ball for Filipe but his ball went wide of the goal. There was more joy for us just after that when Coagey Grady's big gob finally managed to piss off the referee enough and the wee dwarf finally saw yellow. Saints kept up the pressure and a long freekick from McManus saw Jason on a great break but shots from both him and McInnes were blocked by the home defence.

Then on the hour mark, the game almost turned on it's head with another controversial red card as echoes of last weekend's encounter came back to haunt us. A long ball found Filipe breaking through and he was fouled but the referee decided to rule against him. Morais let the temper get the better of him and before we knew it the ball was out the ground and he was walking off the park after being shown a second yellow. As if that wasn't enough to annoy the Saints fans, two minutes later a Gretna corner was cleared with a long ball to Jason who tore down the wing and into the opposition half before being cynically taken from behind by Nicholls. Despite being clear through on goal, Clark decided it didn't warrant a red and Nicholls was only booked (although if he'd been dealt with using the same strict rules applied to Saints fans earlier, it's arguable that Nicholls would have been walking for the challenge). You began to get the feeling that the Gods were trying to spoil our fun and we were in for a nervy last third to the game.

After Graham skinned Stanic and missed an easy shot, Owen made his first change with Peaso sacrificed as the midfield was shored up with the introduction of Andy Lawrie on the right wing. Goran and Jason combined well in the 71st minute on the touchline with some lovely close control before Jason cut inside and shot wide of goal. Then another good run from Scotland (who was having one of his best games in a long time) saw him cut in and set up Sheerinho but his effort was blocked by the keeper. At the other end Grady had a run and shot go wide with fully fifteen minutes to go but the real surprise was seeing a fair number of the home support heading for the exits. Nice to see they've not been too spoiled by all their success in recent seasons - still it gave the Saints fans a chance to sing "What a shite party" as the party atmosphere for the black and white ends of the ground began to fall flat.

The Saints players were starting to enjoy themselves as well and after a freekick was awarded against McInnes for high feet, the long freekick into the box was easily held by Halliwell, but he then topped it off with a delayed spectacular dive to emphasise the quality of the save (and piss off the home players). We were looking fairly comfortable as the Village People ran out of ideas. Lilley was put on in the 82nd minute for Jason as the entertainment began to come from the desperate antics from the home side with Grady trying for a penalty in the 85th minute and McMenamin going in on McInnes to earn himself a booking as their discipline began to go completely. Meanwhile we were killing the game off but somehow Mr Clark decided his Mickey Mouse watch would match his Mickey Mouse refereeing and managed to drag out five minutes of injury time. The Saintees weren't bothered as we were enjoying ourselves while the home stands emptied. Even then there was plenty of energy about the Saints performance with Sheerinho making a great run back to his own goalline to clear the last attack from Gretna. He was replaced by Wullie for the last minute or so but there was no real drama at the end as the home side seemed to have given up and looked downbeat by the time Clark blew his final whistle.

There was a lot asked of the Saints players today and to be fair they rose up to the occasion and at least guaranteed the title race goes on for another week or so. There wasn't a poor performance on the park although Morais was a bit of an idiot for kicking the ball away. MoM for me was Jason who had as good a performance as he's put on all season but to be honest there were plenty of winners out there today. The sharpness and confidence in the Saints play was a joy to behold at times and it's that sort of attitude that we need to see next week and into the closing games of the season. We might not win in the end but at least we spoilt the party, and it was good to see the players acknowledge the backing they'd had throughout the game from the Saints fans who kept the home crowd, TFOD-loving hoolies and all.

Fat lady's not singing yet!!!

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