Temple Of Saints - Saints Fight Back

Scottish Premier League - 18/04/98

Hearts 1 Saints 1 League Table Here

Team :: Main,McQuillan,Il Biscotti,Dasovic,Weir,Kernaghan,McMahon,Kane,Roddy,Georgio,O'Neil
Subs :: McCluskey,O'Halloran,Jenkinson

Dasovic passed a morning fitness test to take Chiefs place in the Saints midfield in front of 15000 fans at Tynie as the Gorgie Scum attempted to keep their flickering title hopes alive - hah !

Saints were the brighter team for most of the first half but again lacked the killer touch in front of goal. McMahon in particular was getting a lot of room on the right but seemed incapable of getting past the Jambo OAP Pointon. Having said that, the Saints strikers looked just as jaded and with most decisions going against us thanks to some incredibly crap reffing you got the impression it just wouldnt be our day.

We did have the ball in the back of the net thanks to Georgio only for it to be ruled offside. Kane, McMahon and Del all had good attempts on goal but it was the Jambos who came closest with a Fulton effort hitting the crossbar. They also had an excellent chance with Shit McCann in a one-on-one with Main after the latter screwed up a clearance but thanks to some frightening dribbling the Saints man cleared the ball.

As always with the Gorgie Scum there was more than average number of fouls and nasty challenges with Legend the victim of several elbows and Hamilton proving that he can elbow with the best of Negris. By far the worst though was a hacking foul before half-time by Shit McCann on Dasovic with the Saints midfielder forced to withdraw at half-time and be replaced by Chief. McCann earned a yellow card but after the constant whingeing after he was booked he was lucky referee Bobby Orr didnt decide to send him off.

With the loss of Dasovic a fair bit of the bite went out of the Saints midfield and the second half was spent doing more defending than attacking. The Gorgie scum sent on the Donkey and Diving Duo Quitongo and Robertson in an effort to push forward and after 75 minutes they took the lead. Donkey broke down the right wing and played the ball on to the Angolan Diver who managed to get past Il Biscotti and square the ball back for the Donkey to send a low shot past Main.

All credit to Saints though and we drew level 3 minutes later after some good play on the wing by Del saw the ball break out to Chief on the left. His cross-cum-shot hit the post and Legend was there to get the rebound (and make up for a couple of sitters he missed earlier in the half). Yet again Jim Weir proved how Saintly he is now by overcelebrating the goal !!

After that it was backs to the wall stuff as the Jambos tried every diving, cheating trick in the book to get their anticipated last minute penalty. Thanks to Il Biscotti and Main with a couple of excellent stops on the line they were denied and were lucky to even get a point after Del forced Mackenzie into a good snap-save.

There was one other booking for McQ for a foul on McCann, although both Salvatori and Ritchie were let off lightly for frequent fouling in the second-half. MoM for me was Weir who did his part in some fantasting Saints defending.

CURRENT LEAGUE TABLE

Pos..Team..................P..W..D..L..F..A..Pt

  1. Celtic............... 33 21 06 06 61 23 69
  2. Rangers........... 32 19 09 04 71 35 66
  3. Hearts............. 33 18 09 06 66 41 63
  4. Kilmarnock........33 11 10 12 36 50 43
  5. SAINTS.......... 33 11 09 13 33 38 42
  6. Dundee Utd...... 33 07 13 13 40 46 34
  7. Motherwell....... 33 09 07 17 42 56 34
  8. Dunfermline...... 33 07 12 14 39 63 33
  9. Aberdeen......... 32 07 11 14 33 48 32
  10. Hibs................ 33 06 10 17 36 57 28

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