Rangers 3 Saints 2 League Table Here
Team ::
Main,McQuillan,Davison,Dasovic,Kernaghan,Weir,Scott,O'Neil,Kane,Georgio,Preston
Subs :: Griffin,O'Halloran,Grant
Expect to see plenty of headlines about plucky Saints etc, but if there had been even an ounce of justice today Saints would have walked away with at least a point after the last 20 minutes when we dominated the game. With Jenko missing, Luggy brought back Callum Davison to deal with the threat of the Diving Dane and pushed Allan 'Outlet' Preston up front.
However, some things never change and Saints, seeking their first win over the Evil Ones since 1971, stuck firmly to tradition and treated their opponents with kid gloves. The upshot of this was that we had a Preston shot on target early on but then fell behind to a Gattuso goal after 6 mins after the Italian git (doing his only piece of non-cheating all day) beat Weir, Kernaghan and McQ before scoring from a tight angle. Cue a silent Saints support and the usual thoughts of 'here we go again'.
The first half was fairly quiet, with Laudrup deciding Davison was far too classy a defender for him to tackle and was replaced by Whingeing Git Durie after 25 mins. Paul Kane picked up a booking in the same period for a late tackle on the fat wife-beater (who also retaliated but received no punishment from Herald).
The game was still in Rangers favour and with 40 minutes on the clock, a through ball found Negri apparently a mile offside. However the flag stayed down and Saints went two behind. Still just as we began to really despair the Boys began a fight back. Four minutes later and some good work on the right saw a cross go into the box, a bit of a scramble and Le Biscuit was there to shoot the ball into the top of the net to give us some hope for the second half.
It didnt last long though as despite a good start from Saints we went 3-1 behind thanks to Negri getting too much room in the box again after 54 minutes.
Suddenly though Saints began to play like a team possessed and with Nick Dasovic and Kane linking up well in midfield and Davison and Preston doing plenty of moving on the wings we began to force a few mistakes from TFOD. Georgio came close when McCall and Goram screwed up a pass-back and the keeper was forced to make a good save from Georgios narrow shot. Then Scott had a first-time volley just go over the bar. Luggy put on Roddy in place of Preston and he came close with a snap shot.
On 72 minutes though the Saints fans had a chance to cheer again as a pass from Kane on the right found Georgio who ran in on goal and sent the ball past Goram to make it 3-2. There was still time for Phizzy to hit the post (with the aid of a Goram save), and see a header just go over. At the other end Main made some good saves from Negri and Fat-Geordie but with Saints still on the attack time finally ran out. IMHO it was the best performance from the team this season and hopefully next time we can break the curse. Only one other booking - Callum Davison in very mysterious circumstances whilst McCall and Gattuson both had miraculous escapes from Mr Heralds book.
MoM for me was Davison who proved just how much we've missed him this season (sorry Outlet), but honourable mentions to the rest of the team who played their hearts out and showed just how much the team have progressed since the cup-tie in January. As for the 'loyal' fans of TFOD - how many of them left before full-time?
Remember to vote on todays ref Jim Herald (Newton Mearns) - send marks out of 10 to refvote@grange.demon.co.uk