Celtic 0 Super Saints 1 League Table Here
Team ::
Main,McCluskey,Bollan,Dods,Kernaghan,Dasovic,O'Neil,McMahon,
Kane,Georgio,Lowndes
Subs :: Preston,Legend,Whiteford,Griffin,Ferguson
Pure dead brilliant bythe way. We arra peepil etc. etc.
Sorry, sometimes it takes a wee while for the Wegie Effect to wear off. Unlike the big smile on my face having seen one of the best Saints defensive performances of the last few years. OK so no doubt the media will do their usual when Saints win (ie Hibs/Dons/Celtic were crap/are in crisis etc) but nothing should be taken away from the Saints performance. For most of the game we were under a lot of pressure but somehow since St Sandy arrived there is a passion and a commitment about the team. And most of all they want to play for one another. Bloody brilliant so it is (bytheway).
With Dasovic deemed fit enough to play, Saints were able to field an unchanged side from the weekend. However for the first 10 minutes it seemed set to be a repeat of the lacklustre performance in May which saw us miss out on Europe. Larsson and Jackson were given far too much room, Bollan looked slow at left-back and Kernaghan seemed unable to clear his lines. With Nathan and Georgio suffering from a lack of service from the midfield and Kane and Dasovic apparently struggling to keep possession it looked grim.
Until the 15th minute that is when Saints won a free kick 20 yards out on the left. A simple square ball from Kane met the oncoming Dasovic who blasted the ball into the net to shut the neanderthals up. Celtic fought back after that and Saints suffered another blow when Nathan was taken off after a head knock to be replaced by Il Biscotti with Del moving up front to partner Georgio.
The rest of the half saw Saints under a lot of pressure with McCluskey caught a few times by Mahe. However TFOE struggled to show any sort of creativity with the ball settling for the most part to lay it off to Fangs Burley or 'classy' Lambert on the edge of the box for them to try one of their long-range efforts and blast the ball into orbit. Come to think of it maybe thats why they built those big stands behind the goal so Fergus and Jock wouldnt have to splash out on new balls. Suffice to say that if these two Scottish TFOE idiots represent the backbone of the Scottish midfield for the Euro campaign, then Phizzy, Il Biscotti, even Kane and Del are all being done a large disservice.
Of course the other traditional Wegie tactic soon surfaced with Mahe, Jackson and Lassie all making glorious dives in the box in search of the usual penalty. For once though (and surprisingly given that it was Wegie McCurry in charge), the ref gave them nothing. This also applied to Saints tho with TFOE escaping with numerous handballs including a classing by Jackson as he proceeded to pick the ball up before it had crossed the line for a throw-in.
The second-half started off in the same way with Dasovic, Kane and Il Biscotti all joining in Saints defensive wall. However with the help of the classier TFOE players (must be since even Jimbo White said Brattbakk was good) we were rarely troubled. Main had to make a couple of world-class saves (as expected) which perhaps showed that Saints had some luck on our side (and started me believing we could win the game).
Saints had chances too - winning a tackle in our half when TFOE were looking for the foul saw the ball break forward to Del who cut it back to Kane who let fire a volley from 25 yards only to see it hit the woodwork. The rebound fell beautifully to Del who managed to miss with a low drive. There were a couple of bookings for the TFOE for protesting about the foul and IMHO Fangs was lucky to stay on the park after he seemed to shove McCurry. With Saints tiring Legend was brought on for Georgio who looked fairly ineffective against Reiper. Georgio looked well pissed off about being replaced but it has to be said that he is well off form just now. Legend did the usual of having a free kick given against him within 10 seconds of coming on and to be honest was pretty crap - but we were winning. Also introduced was Danny boy for McMahon who put in plenty of work on the right wing and seems to be much improved since last season.
The last 10 minutes (including the seemingly endless injury time) saw Saints under constant pressure with about 500 penalty claims from TFOE. Main made a couple of excellent saves and the boys held on despite McCluskey and Bollan picking up needless bookings. First win at TFOEland in the Premier but thoroughly well-deserved for the lads.
MoM for me were Dasovic and Main. Nick especially seems to be turning into a midfield playmaker at last and hardly put a foot wrong all night. The only real problem in the side seems to be the lack of goals from Georgio - hopefully that will change this weekend. As for TFOE - TFOD will win the league despite TFOE having the better 'product' off the park.
Right wheres me bottle of vodka. (cue drunken memories of January!!!)
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | Points |
| Rangers | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 11 | 5 | 12 |
| Kilmarnock | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 4 | 12 |
| Hearts | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 7 | 11 |
| Saints | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 11 |
| Celtic | 7 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 11 | 7 | 9 |
| Aberdeen | 7 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 9 | 9 |
| Motherwell | 7 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 9 |
| Dunfermline | 7 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 9 | 8 |
| Dundee | 7 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 5 |
| Dundee Utd | 7 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 4 |
Remember to vote on todays ref - Mike McCurry (Glasgow) send marks out of 10 to refvote@grange.demon.co.uk