Temple Of Saints - Saints Win The Cup!!!!
Challenge Cup Final 25/11/2007
Saints 3 Pars 2
Team : Main, Irvine, Stanic, McInnes, McManus,
Anderson, Quinn, Sheerin, Deuchar, Jackson, Peaso
Subs: Cuthbert, Rustybitz, McLaren, Savo, Hardie
The big day was finally here - and no matter how many people were trying
to dismiss this game as a diddy tournament prior to kick-off, there's no
doubt that both managers were taking this seriously, Kenny in a hope of
keeping his job and Sandy Stewart in an attempt to help boost the morale
of the Saints supporters that had taken such a battering earlier in the
week with the sudden departure of Owen Coyle for Burnley. If nothing else
it had meant a bit more publicity in the build-up of the game and the
prospect for those of us who were unfortunate to be seated in the main
stand, the chance of playing a game of "Spot the Next Boss"
amongst the dignitaries that turned up to watch this afternoon's
entertainment. Four thousand plus Saints fans had made the trip along the
road to hopefully see our boys lift their first national trophy although
despite the Pars indifferent form this season, two goalless league
encounters between the sides so far this campaign meant that it looked on
paper like being a tight affair with possibly only one goal in it to
separate the teams (assuming either side managed to find the net ahead of
the dreaded penalty shootout).
In the end the game itself provided plenty of drama but after suffering
some close panicky moments following a spirited Pars comeback in the
second-half, Saints finally broke the hoodoo and lifted their first
national trophy. The football wasn't the best we've ever seen and there
were still some of the same flaws in our tactics as we tired in the second
half, but for sheer drama throughout the ninety minutes it's going to be
difficult to beat for the rest of the season. But or all that, the
important bit was after the final whistle and the sheer unadulterated joy
of seeing a trophy appear on the pitch with those blue and white ribbons
round it. That's what made it all worthwhile.
Sandy Stewart's first (and possibly only) game in charge saw him given
the nice dilemma as to whether or not to risk Savo or the Mad Mental One
both of whom had come through closed-door games in recent weeks. There was
a report beforehand of a minor knock to an unnamed player and elsewhere
Peaso had been suffering from a knock, while some of the pre-match debate
had been whether or not the Cat would be allowed to retain the
goalkeeper's jersey after his performance in earlier rounds or if Alan
Main would be allowed to step in for the final. The starting eleven
though, saw Main given the nod while Wullie dropped to the bench as Peaso
was given a start on the left wing. The other surprise though was the
sight of the injured trip of Savo, Hardie and Rustybitz all returning to
the bench.
After playing host to the Scum's win over Accies yesterday, the scabby
surface that makes up the Dens pitch looked in reasonable nick for the
boys to play some sexy flowing football. With a noisy and boisterous
Saints support aided by some decent tannoy tunes (not a Wurzel in sight)
and several Mark Yardley's worth of blue and white balloons, the players
took to the field attacking the Saints end of the park. We didn't get off
to the best of starts with a soft freekick against the Doc in the first
minute. The Pars forced a 3rd minute corner but Chalky and Ando dealt with
the danger. A minute later Saints had their first chance when a freekick
from Irvine was headed down for Rocco and as he lined up a shot he was
kneed in the back - no freekick said referee Smith. Jacko lost out on a
long ball next and then another run following a good ball from Rocco saw a
defender take a dive. Irvine tried to set up Jacko next in the 7th minute
with a long ball down the right wing but the striker's run was ended when
he was simply taken out by Bamba (and I don't mean for a drink and a
meal). The referee warned the Fifer, before Irvine's freekick floated into
the box. The ball was half-cleared but only as far as Derek McInnes but
his effort went wide of target.
Our
next attack in the tenth minute bore more fruit however. Another good
piece of play from Gary Irvine allowed him to link well with Sheerin on
the right wing before sending a return pass into the box where Peaso took
it on the volley only to see the ball deflect off a defender for a corner.
Over came the cross only to be half-cleared and when Ando went in for the
challenge he was brought down with the referee not hesitating in pointing
at the spot despite the protests from the Pars defenders. Up stepped
Sheerinho to commemorate his 150th game for Saints with a low spot kick
into the keepers bottom left corner with the goalie sent the other way.
One-nil and suddenly the doubts began to vanish. The Pars didn't quite go
to pieces after that but the upsurge in confidence in the yellow-shirted
Saints players was plain to see with Quinn going on a mazy run a couple of
minutes later before sending a great cross in from the right that the Doc
met beautifully only to see his header go wide of goal. Irvine turned
provider next with a teasing cross in which the Doc headed down for Rocco.
His shot was blocked and the Doc's follow-up volley went just wide of the
goal.
But the nerves were showing in the opposition and a sclaff clearance
from the keeper in 16th minute set up our second goal. A long throw-in was
headed on in the box and fell perfectly for Peaso who fired a dipping shot
past the keeper into the top corner. Sheer perfection and with Saints 2-0
up suddenly the Saints fans were in party mood. The chances kept coming
with Sheerinho seeing an effort blocked in the 21st minute and the Doc
through on goal a minute after that only for the keeper to come out and
clear.It wasn't until the 25th minute that the Pars came close to
threatening the Saints goal with a corner first headed behind by McManus
and then punched clear by Main.
But with only half an hour on the clock, we extended our lead even
further with a wonderful opportunist goal from the Doc. Jacko had another
good run down the right wing leaving his marker for dead before cutting
inside and passing to the Doc in the box. With everyone expecting the Doc
to lay it back, he pulled off a great turn to lose his man before firing a
low shot into the narrow gap between keeper and post to notch up our third
goal. Bedlam ensued, and it began to become a question of how many we'd
get. The scoreline seemed to be too much for more than a few of the Pars
fans scattered across the opposing stand as they showed their faith in
their team by heading for the exits. Unfortunately for us the third goal
signalled the start of some casual play from us with over-confidence
creeping in. The first warning came from a long-range shot that McManus
headed out in the 32nd minute. Then the referee sympathy vote came into
play a couple of minutes after that when a brilliant run by Quinn up the
right wing saw him cut into the box before being brought down from behind
by Murphy from behind in what looked like a stonewall penalty - the
referee disagreed although it would have been interesting to see what his
opinion would have been had the game still been goalless.
It had an impact anyway as the Pars went up the park and with one change
made (Darren Young coming on for Woods), they won a corner in the 36th
minute. A simple ball over and Wilson was there for an easy header to make
it 3-1. And while the optimism didn't exactly vanish it definitely took a
knock. The players definitely panicked and within a minute Crawford (I
mean bloody Crawford!!) had tried his luck from outside the box with a
shot that Main had to look sharp to palm clear. Another run into the
Saints area a couple of minutes after that saw Main hold a shot and then
Crawford had another attempt that went well over the bar. By this time
Sandy Stewart was giving it laldy on the touchline with the sort of vocal
encouragement that put Oweny's rants to shame. It didn't have much effect
and another cross in from the right was headed down for Main to block
before right on the death more pressure from the Pars almost resulted in a
second goal from them with Young's low drive coming back off Main's
left-hand post with the keeper nowhere. The half-time whistle was a
relief.
After watching the Saints U-13s totally gub their Pars counterparts as
part of the half-time entertainment (and plaudits to the Saints kids for
scoring some great goals at the shootie-in), the second-half got underway
with Main defending the goal in front of the blue and white hordes. And
for a change it looked like we'd learnt our lesson as we started the
second forty-five brightly with a good shot from Rocco in the 46th minute
coming off the inside of the post and going along the goalline. A Rocco
corner four minutes after that created our next chance with Pamela getting
up but heading the ball just wide of the goal.
The Fifers hit back with another run down the right and a cross which
forced Main into action to tip it over the bar. They quickly forced a
second before Saints cleared the danger with the aid of Crawford putting
the ball behind. Unfortunately Main sclaffed the goal kick and the Pars
were back on the attack winning a soft freekick from Irvine. The keeper
managed to hold the final ball into the box. There was no doubt though
that Dunfermline were looking a lot more threatening and the Saints
midfield had yet again begun to drop back and defend too deeply (several
times Peaso was back playing the role of an impromptu left-back). More
pressure in the 59th minute led to another Young shot that Sheerinho
managed to block before the follow-up was held by Main. Saints broke up
the park and after the Doc was fouled but no freekick awarded, Rocco went
on a run only to be crudely hacked down from behind by Murphy earning the
Dunfermline player the first booking of the game.
Saints had a couple of corners but they went too deep before another
Pars break ended up with Goran and Ando clashing as they cleared a ball.
They were able to continue but the Pars used the break in play to
introduce our old friend Fatboy Jim Hamilton to the fray. The game was
getting scrappy with some heavy challenges going in from both sides and
the referee showing some real inconsistency in his decision-making. The
Doc latched onto the end of a long crossfield ball in the 67th minute but
his shot went wide. Then a minute later, Peaso broke into the box but his
cutback went straight into the side netting.
Dunfermline continued to press and that led to some panic defending from
Saints with the Doc called into action in the 69th minute with a great
sliding block to prevent a close-range shot and instead conceding a
corner. That was eventually cleared by Quinn but with twenty minutes to go
there was real controversy as a ball towards the edge of the box saw
Hamilton with his back to goal. He backed into his marker Ando before
hitting the deck despite the foul taking place outside the area. The
referee looked to award a freekick but then after checking with his
lineswoman pointed to the spot which sparked fury amongst the Saints
players and sent Sandy apoplectic on the touchline. The referee was having
none of it and despite our best efforts Glass stepped up to score from the
spot (although Main at least went the right way) before making some
interesting gestures to the Saints fans behind the goal.
Suddenly it was game on and we were looking shaky. We tried to hit back
with a Jacko run into the box that was cleared for a corner. That was hit
out as far as Sheerinho but his attempt went wide of the goal. At the
other end Burchill dived to win a freekick which when it was played into
the box saw Goran pushed onto the ball and forced his clearance to skew up
and clip the bar rather than go to safety. At least the corner was
cleared, but Dunfermline were threatening more and more from these set
pieces as the Saints defence looked to have lost it's shape with Ando
looking less than fully fit. Sandy made his first change with fifteen
minutes remaining as Peaso was sacrificed for Hardie in an attempt to
shore up the midfield. Crawford won a corner for the Pars within a minute
but it came to nothing when Bamba decided to clobber Ando instead leaving
the Saints defender down clutching his shoulder. The game was real
end-to-end stuff though and Saints had the next chance when the Doc was
fouled. Sheerin's freekick found Jacko in the box but his header went wide
of goal. The Pars came straight back up the park with a Glass cross for
Burchill but his header was easily held by Main.
Saints went for broke with the final two subs coming on with ten minutes
remaining as Savo and Rusty replaced Jacko and Ando respectively. By this
time though it was all hands to the pumps as the Pars threw everything at
us (and when these things weigh and smell as much as Hamilton, that's not
a pretty prospect). We were pinned back and unable to break clearly with
Quinn knackered and the Doc showing the effects of several challenges he'd
been on the receiving end of during the game. For all that though the Pars
weren't creating many clearcut chances and the Saints defence was blocking
everything. Wilson picked up the next booking after a midfield battle
ended in him clattering into Deuchar again in the 88th minute. Even then
the Pars still had enough to cause us some nervy moments as the Saints
fans rose up out of their seats. Hamilton had a wee dive under a Rustybitz
challenge and despite the freekick not touching anyone as it went wide the
referee still gave them a corner - this time Main punched and Hardie
cleared.
So it continued into what seemed like an eternity of injury time with
Saints trying to kill the game by walking the ball to the corner flag and
simply run down the clock. The final throw of the dice almost summed up
the game in miniature. The softest of soft freekicks given against Irvine
(so soft you could wrap a puppy in it and keep it in the toilet) ended
with another high ball pumped into Main's box and while the defence and
keeper didn't clear it, in the end they didn't need to as Hamilton headed
wide.
Then
the moment came when the final whistle went and we realised we'd finally
won a trophy. The Pars fans quickly made themselves scarce, barely hanging
round to see their team receive their medals. But for us it was party all
the way as the podium and that wee bit of silverware finally appeared with
those beautifully silky blue and white ribbons adorning it. The players
couldn't stop bouncing around and it was good to see the likes of Main and
Rusty acknowledge the fans before the whole side did the cheers bit and
rekindled those memories of Attila.
Sandy Stewart deserved the plaudits as well and while there was a song
for Owen neither he nor the chairman took to the field to join in the
celebrations - in a way that's right since it was the players and acting
gaffer that did the hard work on the day. Kenny Deuchar picked up the
non-existent sponsor's MoM award but for me he was actually beaten by
Rocco who gets my MoM award. But it's minor quibbles on a day when we
finally overcame a pretty torrential week to round off the fairy story as
every single one of the players who took part today and indeed got us to
the final deserve all the plaudits and their place in Saintees folklore.
As for Sandy Stewart, I'm still not 100% convinced of his long-term future
as a Saints manager but whatever happens he's deserves all the praise for
not hiding this week and leading us to cup glory.
Now can we get on and win this bloody league?
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