Temple Of Saints - Fat Lady Starts

Bells League Division One 31/03/2007

Saints 1 Meadowbank 2 League Table Here

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

For the umpteenth time this season Saints went into another league match with the laudable target of at least keeping the pressure up on the Village People while at the same time hoping the wheels would start to come off Brooke's Dream Machine. Added to that though was the underlying need to get one over on the one team we'd failed to beat so far this season with Fatboy Slim John Robertson bringing his relegation candidates to McDiarmid to prove that the SPL2 notion which has been championed with such common sense by their chairman was at least slightly echoed on the park. After a bad-tempered defeat in the monsoon at Almondvale earlier in the year, Saints had a lot to prove this afternoon and for fully 45 minutes we looked the part as the first-half saw some of the nicest play from Saints that we've seen this season. Unfortunately that was followed by a second forty-five where the worst aspects of the Saints season shone through and as if we weren't up against it enough, the referee decided to show his Raydale Park tendencies with an outrageous decision to send of the Cat with a straight red card for an accidental handball outside the box. In the end though we yet again made a poor Livi side look good and have no one to blame but ourselves. The fat lady hasn't quite broken into song yet, but after today it's just a matter of time.

The recent spell of five games a day for the last month had begun to take its toll on Owen's boys but there was a degree of paper talk about the names being bandied about on Saints injury list before the game. The official count saw James, Hardie, McInnes, McManus, Morais, Wullie, Savo, Jason, Jacko, Ando and Peaso all struggling while Simon Mensing was "doing a Hardie" and taking over the seat in the stand for the next few games. But hey, the Cat was fit and in the end all bar Savo recovered to start the game with the only change from last week seeing Filipe getting a starting jersey on the right wing in place of the suspended Mensing. Of course whether they were fit enough for a full ninety minutes remained to be seen.

Last time Saints kicked off a half of football we'd scored within twelve seconds. Today though we didn't get off to quite as dramatic a start but we looked lively enough and Morais made his mark within the first minute finding space on the right wing before sending the first of several cracking crosses - pity it was cleared. Livi made their mark as well in the opening stages with a minute later seeing Anderson clobbered on the touchline by Mitchell although for some reason the referee decided against even having a word with the Livi player. Saints enjoyed a decent spell of early pressure and the midfield for once looked fairly sharp. Sheerin tried to find James with a third-minute freekick but again the opposition defence was able to clear the danger. The first real chance came in the sixth minute when Scotland was fouled on the wing. From the freekick, the ball broke to Morais who did his best Jenko impersonation with a brilliant shimmy before skinning a defender and sending a great cross over from the byeline for Sheerin but Peanut's header was held by Stewart. A couple of minutes later Scotland set up Peaso for a run but his shot was blocked and then a neat flick on found Jason on a run behind the defence but the ball was just too far in front of him and the keeper collected.

The Cat had an easy time early on in the game with only a couple of freekicks to comfortably deal with. Saints were enjoying the better chances and Sheerin set up Peaso in the 14th minute for a run and his cross went out for our first corner. Sheerin sent it over but it went straight to Stewart. A minute after that and some good linkup play between Hardie and Peaso in a good move only for the latter to be ruled off for offside as the East Stand linesman began to exhibit his shall we say "unique" interpretation of the offside rule as time and time again the decisions went against those in blue shirts. We did have the odd close shave with a nice cockup in the defence in the 17th minute as the back four adapted the casual approach and eventually lost possession allowing a Livi forward through for a shot on goal but the Cat was excellent in coming out and blocking the shot.

Five minutes later and a quick freekick found Filipe on the wing and his run ended in cutting inside and getting the break of the ball off first a defender and then the oncoming Stewart but while Morais did well to recover (showing the sort of fight we've wanted to see all season), the final shot went just wide of goal. A minute later and a Sheerin cross found Filipe and first his and then Jason had shots blocked before the ball returned to Sheerin. He spread it wide for Filipe again who somehow managed to beat his marker and get another great cross in which was perfect for Hardie. Up went Mad Mental Martin at the back post with a cracking header but the ball rebounded off the crossbar for Jason but his shot was blocked. It was starting to look like one of those days. Morais and Jason had shots blocked while a Goran freekick was quickly taken in the 26th minute finding Jason in the box only for the Saints striker to again fall foul of the wacky new offside rule. A minute later Stanic set up Hardie in the box with the latter managing to clash with the Meadowbank keeper - of course the referee ruled in favour of the goalie.

We were playing some neat stuff and for a change the passing was crisp and there was plenty of movement off the ball with Saints doing this wacky new-fangled trick of playing the ball on what I believe is called the deck. And it paid off on the half-hour mark when Hardie's persistence paid off in the middle of the park and his through ball found Jason who had again managed to beat the offside trap. He broke through on goal, rounded the keeper and beat a defender before playing the coolest of cool finishes to slot the ball into the empty net to give us the lead.

Almost immediately Livi tried to get back into the game and Anderson, who had looked pretty good in the opening stages, conceded a stupid freekick on the edge of the box. The set-piece beat the Saints wall but the Cat again had it covered. Just after that Anderson's Livi namesake had a nasty challenge on Peaso and picked up the first booking of the game. As for Saints, we continued to press but time and time again we lost out on some very close offside decisions. But we were finding more joy with the use of Morais on the wing and from another of his crosses seven minutes before the break, the keeper punched the ball clear but Hardie still forced a corner. For a change, it found the head of Kevin James who flicked it on into the 6 yard box where Jason met but unfortunately elected to go for the blast of a shot and sent the ball over the bar. Morais tried a long-range lob a few minutes later but it went well wide and then at the other end the Cat did well to come out and punch a Meadowbank corner clear.

With a reasonable amount of optimism in the home stands during the break, it was time for the Mr Hyde side of Saints play to start to show itself. We had an early freekick cleared but within a couple of minutes, Golabek had tried a low drive that the Cat held. Saints suddenly lost their shape big time and we were under a long period of pressure and unable to string two passes together (personally I'm starting to go with the alien possession during the interval as the most obvious explanation). Four minutes in and Morais was caught napping on the ball at the touchline and the ball was cut in and ended in a good angled shot that the Cat did well to get over and tip round the post. But we were again sitting far too deep and seemed unable to break out of our own half. Even when we managed that small task, the final balls and pace up front was letting us down.

Saints were living dangerously and more Meadowbank pressure saw James forced into making a last-ditch tackle in the box to prevent another shot. From the resulting corner, Goran cleared the danger but again there was no blue shirt up to cause any problems. We almost extended our lead just before the hour mark when Scotland and Morais combined well on the wing before the latter crossed to the back post where Sheerin met it and squared back to Jason. He had his back to goal though and was unable to turn and get a shot in with the ball eventually going to McInnes and Peaso before going out for a corner. From that the ball was met by James and a stramash developed in the box before the referee decided we looked like scoring and gave a foul against Saints. Five minutes later and we finally saw a wee bit of entertainment from Saints with Filipe doing another Jenko shimmy to skin two defenders and break through on goal only to end up on the ground with McPake booked for breaking up the Saints attack. Derek Lilley came on to replace the tiring Peaso a minute later and just after that Hardie played a great ball down the touchline for Jason on the left who cut inside his marker before seeing his shot blocked with Morais' attempt at the follow-up meeting the same fate.

Twenty minutes to go though and Saints were punished for their lack of killer touch in front of goal. A simple Livi break saw the Saints defence split open and caught napping before a low drive from substitute Dorrans seemed to take a deflection. The Cat was down to get the ball but the spin on it ended in heartache as the ball squirmed past him and took an age to go over the line to level the game. Saints tried to hit back and Jason and then Morais forced corners. We came close to regaining the lead from the second one as a deep cross was headed down by Hardie for Jason but somehow his shot was tipped over.

Cue nightmare moment number two. Another Livi break in the 73rd minute saw the Saints defence missing and when the ball went out to the left touchline, the Cat went out of the box to narrow the angle and before you knew it, the Livi player fired the ball against him. The Cat didn't have a chance of getting out of the way and immediately the referee blew for a handball and to the fury of the Saints players, out came the red card.

Halliwell came on with Filipe the strange choice of outfield player to be sacrificed. By now we were chasing the game and the legs seemed to have gone from Saints. Livi were trying to slow the game down and time and time again there seemed to be hold-ups in the play due to injury or simple timewasting. Then came the sucker punch and another Livi attack was allowed to progress unmolested as McInnes was left dead for pace, McManus was posted missing and a simple square ball found Dorrans and he fired a low shot past the onrushing Halliwell to make it 2-1.

You knew it was over then and despite the huffing and puffing (with James pushing up), we were up against it with no real urgency in the play, especially from Halliwell who took ages to take a goal-kick. McManus picked up a stupid booking for a foul on Mole (although the referee missed Moles snide wee kick back). Anderson was sacrificed for Wullie for the last five minutes or so but even then we were doing our best to screw things up and Sheerin gifted the ball to Livi in the 87th minute only for Halliwell to pull off a good save.

Boos at full-time which were thoroughly deserved - some praise though for Kevin James who at least came over to applaud the fans. MoM for me was close although there were only really two candidates but Goran wins out for being Mr Consistent again. Morais had a decent game when he was on but was used far too little with more play going down the left wing. Peaso and Jason did well but had little support although both Hardie and Sheerin had reasonable games. In defence we looked far too slow in the second-half. For all that though and the fact the league is all but over, there has to be some praise for the Cat who will no doubt get plenty of stick in the days to come - he was unlucky at their first goal and certainly didn't deserve a red card. Hopefully it's not going to be another long spell on the sidelines for him.

Finally there is still a semi-final to play for - it would be nice to see the players reminded of that this week.

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