TFOD
2 Saints 1 League Table HereTFOD
2 Saints 1 League Table Here
Team ::
Robertson,McQuillan,McCluskey,Attila,Weir,Kernaghan,McMahon,Kane,Roddy,Connolly,Il
Biscotti
Subs :: O'Neil,Jenko,Georgio
Some more signs of improvement and for the few hundred Saintees in the 50,000 crowd of Evil disappointment at the end of the day that Saints were denied at least the draw which they more than deserved. Il Biscotti was passed fit and inherited the no 11 shirt with Taffy relegated to the bench. McQ took up the unaccustomed left-back slot with McCluskey at right-back whilst Stephen Robertson started his second Premier League match.
From the start Saints were put under some pressure with Jorg the Hun Hun coming close with a couple of rocketing shots and hitting the post with one effort. At the other end Saints struggled to make any sort of impact although the TFOD defence looked vulnerable from the start. Midfield was not our strong point and yet again Dino and Kane proved that they are too similar to play together in the same team although to be fair the Austrian had his best game in a Saints shirt for long enough.
Saints took the lead after 15 minutes when a free-kick from the left was knocked back across goal then out of the box. The ball was sent straight to the feet of Father Dougal and he half-volleyed it from 20 yards past the flying turd in the TFOD goal to silence the baying hordes.
Saints kept up the pressure and both Kane and Dino had OK efforts whilst Legend was making his presence known to Thug Petric and Crap Bjorklund. TFOD replaced the injured Moore with the Diving Dane and he had an immediate impact. Given far too much room to move on their right wing he crossed the ball over for a goalmouth scramble to end in Negri scoring on the half-hour.
We fought back though and McMahon hit the crossbar with a header before Paddy Connolly (looking like the bargain of the season) missed a sitter just before half-time. At the other end Robertson made up for his errors at the TFOD goal with an excellent save from Negri (although the whistle had already gone for a Saints free-kick).
Second-half was dominated more by TFOD in the early stages though the Saints defence held up well and Robertson had no difficulty with any of the saves. The Huns second came on the hour mark when a corner-kick was knocked out of the box for Thern to send a 25-yarder low into the net though the ball seemed to deflect off Negri (and post-match there was talk of an arm being used).
With the Saints support expecting the traditional gubbing now El Luggino sent on the subs. ONeil replaced the tiring McMahon whilst Georgio and Jenko came on for Il Biscotti and Connolly both of whom seemed to be tiring rapidly. The changes up front made an early impact and Roddy and Georgio both had good chances and Attila came close with a header.
The real drama was saved for the last 5 minutes though as O'Neil and McCluskey combined well on the right to send a cross over. Jenko tangled with Bjorklund before the ball was knocked into Georgios path for him to score only to see the goal chalked off for offside. All I can say is that if the Saints goal was offside then TFOD should never have been awarded their first.
So despite not getting any points, Saints put on a good performance and more than deserved something. Keep this up till the end of the season and Europe is a distinct possibility.
Bookings for McQ and Kane although that was about the only contribution that Kane made to the Saints performance. MoM for me was Roddy - he was willing to get stuck into everything and despite being totally knackered at the end he still got a few good nudges in on Petric. Arse for me was Jenko - even coming off the bench he was totally crap compared to Biscuits and Preston wasn't even fully fit.
Remember to vote on todays ref George Simpson (Westhill) - send marks out of 10 to refvote@grange.demon.co.uk