Temple Of Saints - Happy New Year Zeus

Scottish Premier League - 02/01/99

Sexy Saints 4 More Relegation Fodder 1 League Table Here

Team :: Main,McQuillan,Bollan,Dods,Kernaghan,Scott,O'Neil,McMahon, Kane,Paddy,Miguel
Subs :: Keyring,Griffin,Nathan,Legend,Robertson

Another excellent way to start the New Year. With 4000+ sheep getting rustling their way to McD there was a sellout crowd. Strangely enough there weren't that many left at the final whistle. Still it was nice to see a capacity crowd and the delights of watching Sheep fans trying to watch the game from the car park or else go undercover in the East Stand where they had to sit and suffer as Saints ran rampant in the second half.

Dasovic injured his back and so Phizzy Scott got a chance to grab the midfield slot whilst St Sandy made the promised changes from Tuesday nights 1-1 draw with the Pars by playing Eusebio from the start in place of the Legend.

Saints started brightly enough with Paddy and Eusebio causing the Sheep defence all sorts of problems - especially Zeus who looked slower than Roddy on a bad day - and getting plenty of hacks for his efforts. Still we were getting crosses into the box and making chances with Paddy and Del coming close early on and McMahon and McQ also having shots. Still there was the nagging feeling that it could turn into another one of those days.

It didnt help the fears of the home support when the shambles of a Saints defence saw Main muck up a clearance which went to Bollan who seemed to be sleeping off a New Year hangover and was caught in possession. With Father Dougal sending passes all over the place it looked bad. And it was when against the run of play the Sheep broke up the park. Instead of tackling them the Saints defence backed off Buchan sent a low drive in which took a deflection/bounce to beat Main (who looked far too slow going down for it as it was) and give them the lead.

Saints managed to go to pieces after that for a long period. On the right wing McMahon and Scott were to put it mildly crap and with the Sheep defence starting their timewasting tactics early (which led to an altercation between Kano and Inglis and a warning for them both), it grew more and more frustrating for the home support. The performance of the strikers wasn't helping much either and only Simao, Kane, Del and Dods could emerge with any credit with both midfielders especially rolling their sleeves up and generally getting stuck in.

Saints kept the pressure up and with only a couple of minutes to go before half-time a long ball into the box was aimed for Dods. Unfortunately Scotlands best uncapped defender was prevented from getting the ball by a nasty challenge from behind by everyones favourite ex-Saintee. Still Baldy Rowbotham was up with play and pointed to the spot immediately with Inglis earning a booking and Kiriakov getting a yellow for dissent. Blaster Bollan took the kick and made no mistake.

Second-half started lively enough with Whyte bringing Eusebio crashing down as the Wing Wizard broke free to earn a yellow. 5 minutes later St Sandys Crusaders took the lead when a long cross from the right was knocked past the far post only to find Father Dougal who sent a low volley past Stillie to make it 2-1.

Of course this was the cue for Saints to start a 10-15 minute period of crap football. With Paddy looking less and less effective and St. Sandy unwilling to bring on a sub the play got a lot more scrappy. Thanks mainly to Kano and Del the Sheep were fairly well contained but there was the usual nagging doubt that they might get the breakaway equaliser a la Scumdee. It didn't help when guys like Gerry and Eusebio were missing golden chances as well.

With 15 minutes left on the clock though, Del put the game beyond their reach with a wonderful break down the left and another low drive past the keeper. 7 minutes later and it was 4-1 with an almost identical shot. St. Sandy finally brought on the subs with Nathan, Legend and Keyring replacing Paddy, Gerry and Eusebio.

The score remained the same though despite the efforts of the Legend to get a jammy 5th. MoM was given to Del but personally Kane deserved the award more for 90 minutes of professional play. Only one yellow for Saints when Bollan was booked for a soft challenge in what was far from a dirty game. We've still got the same problems up front and in midfield but at least the goals are going in.

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