Saints 0 West Ham 1
Team :: Main,McQuillan,Davison,Attila,Weir,Griffin,Tosh,Kane,Ferguson,
Georgio,Jenko
Subs :: O'Neil,Preston,McCluskey,Grant,Farquhar,O'Halloran
Welcome to the wonderful world of the pre-season friendly when you get to lay eyes on the future of football - Dinos got a ponytail and Georgios bleached his hair. Didnt make any difference to their play tho - Saints still looked like a half-fit team who struggled to put more than a couple of passes together against a West Ham team which rarely threatened but seemed to run rings round us. With Roddy not quite match fit Fergie was given the striker role up front alongside Georgio. Suffice to say that the hype which has been appearing in the papers the last few days is just that. Apart from a couple of good runs he did nothing in this game to indicate that Roddy has anything to worry about.
Saints started brightly enough with Dino forcing a good save from Canadian keeper Forrest in the Hammers goal from a free kick outside the box. Tosh and McQuillan on the right seemed to combine well. Pity the same couldn't be said of the left side of the pitch. Jenko again had a fairly poor game with little or no passes. Having said that he didn't help matters by continually passing the ball back when received. It took until midway through the second half before he did a shuffle run. The defence looked solid enough in the first half - if there were a few panicky clearances, the players were well covered and the home goal was rarely threatened with Main in excellent form when dealing with crosses. If there was a weak point it was probably Weir - it looks as though his lack of pace may be a problem in the months ahead. In midfield Paul Kane made his home debut and looked impressive. Tosh played out of his skin and Dino was his usual apathetic self. One thing which did cross my mind is that with these guys in midfield there has to be a high probability of a large number of red and yellow cards getting dished out next season.
Saints best chance came towards the end of the first half when Georgios rocket shot from 8 yards was deflected by the keeper onto the post.
The second half started well for Saints with possession being kept for longer periods of time. However the discipline in defence seemed to be lost and a cross from the right on the hour mark found substitute John Hartson who headed home. After that it was always going to be an uphill battle for the Saints. O'Neill was brought on for Fergie and livened things up and Roddy replaced Kane and managed a good low shot which Forrest did well to get down to save.
Overall it was a typical pre-season friendly and there was an air of going through the motions for several players before the real fun begins next week. I reckoned Tosh was our best player purely cos he ran his arse off all night and didn't seem to be willing to settle for the one goal defeat.