Temple Of Saints - Back on Form

Scottish Premier League - 14/11/98

Supreme Saintees 2 Celtic1 League Table Here

Team :: Main,McQuillan,Bollan,Dods,Kernaghan,Dasovic,O'Neil,Scott, O'Halloran,Kane,Roddy,Simao
Subs :: Lowndes,Connolly,McCluskey,Keyring,Ferguson

What a difference a week makes. If Saints had shown have of the guts and determination they displayed against the Wegie Scum today, they would have got a win last week. With Il Biscotti and Georgio failing fitness tests, Kane suspended and Danny dropped, St. Sandy made several telling changes to the Saints side which has been unchanged since the Sheep were last in Europe (or so it seems). In came Chief O'Halloran and Phizzy for their first starts in ages to bolster the midfield and up front the Legend took over the centre forward slot with support from Bandito. Paddy Connolly, Nathan and Keyring formed the core of the traditionally defensive St. Sandy subs line-up.

So to the game - one of the best of the season with plenty of incident (both footie and non-footie related) and a referee performance from Martindale which if not wonderful at least evened itself out over the course of 94 minutes (remember we're playing Celtic) in the crap decisions awarded to both sides. From the start Saints looked a much livelier side from last Sunday and straight away Miguel and Legend put the TFOE defence under all sorts of pressure with Miguel unlucky not to be awarded a penalty after Old Man Boyd fouled him in the box. The Saints midfield were coping fairly well but there was always the nagging feeling that the game last weekend started the same way. But Goldilocks and the latest Kid Hype for TFOE caused little problem up front in the early stages with Bollan and Dods playing excellently in defence. As for the midfield, Phizzy looked almost world-class as he chased and harried for every ball and put in challenges all over the place.

The game was always going to be a physical affair and Miguel, Del and Chief all felt the effects of late tackles in the first half with Chief coming off after 25 minutes with what turned out to be damaged left knee ligaments. On came Keyring to replace him on the left wing whilst Del moved over to Chiefs slot on the right. The change saw TFOE take advantage of Saints loss of shape and for about 10 minutes they began to pressure Saints with one rocket hitting the woodwork.

Saints had plenty of chances to break the deadlock in the first half. Dasovic came closest with a long-range effort which the new Scouse Git in goal for TFOE did well to turn round the post. There were also low drives from McQ and the Legend and a wonderful piece of skill from Bandito who forced a corner (although the TFOE scum behind the goal and Haralds pal 'Whingeing' Vidar disagreed slightly). Legend picked up Saints first booking for dissent after Boyd had been booked for the more traditional hacking offence.

With the game looking like 0-0 at half-time, Bandito won a free kick on the left. Keyring floated the ball across the penalty area for Father Dougal to send a low shot back in which Bandito turned into the net. 1-0 us and the TFOE stopped singing Championes !!! Of course Bandito then got booked for celebrating in front of the away support along with Keyring and Legend - apparently they didn't take too kindly to the gestures signifying a Saints lead.

Second-half saw TFOE having received a kick up the arse from Dr. Davros and Fergus Magoo put the heat on Saints. Some woeful defending on the right (McQ caught out again) saw a series of crosses sent in and with some panicky clearances the cycle repeated itself until Goldilocks got the ball and instead of his traditional swan dive he shot into the net for the equaliser.

After that Saints had their backs to the wall (and with Celtic Boys Club ex-members about it was probably no bad thing) for a while and Main was forced to make some cracking saves as well as Father Dougal and Big Darren stopping netbound efforts. The midfield which had been so effective in the first 45 seemed to vanish into the Saints penalty box, whilst up front Legend was running out of steam and Miguel seemed to be losing the initiative against the Frog and OAP in the TFOE defence.

Eventually St. Sandy realised that Legend isn't as fast as a snail and replaced him with Kid Goals to great effect. Within minutes Saints were back on the attack with Bandito forcing Scouse Git into a low save after he dribbled past the entire TFOE defence and got a shot in. With 12 minutes to go though, Saints regained the lead when Haralds pal 'Whingeing Vidar' attempted to clear the ball after cruelly taking it from the feet of Kid Goals in the Celtic box. Now I'm not sure if he was worried about redoing his roots or that but all he did was to sclaf the ball across the goalmouth into the path on the incoming Keyring who headed into the net.

Saints defence still had work to do before the final whistle with the usual dodgy penalty claims, Main punches and Celtic free kicks blazed over the bar, but also had chances of their own with a Nathan drive and a Dods header, before Martindale decided to prevent further humiliation of TFOE.

So two wins in a row over TFOE. MoM for me was Garry Bollan. He had a cracking match at left-back and managed to antagonise the TFOE support all through the game as well. But to be honest apart from a small spell either side of the break when the midfield vanished Saints were well in control for most of the match. One change I would make for the future though - if in doubt play Nathan ahead of Legend - the latter just doesn't have the pace any more.

Its almost enough to restore your faith for the Cup !!!!

Remember to vote on todays ref Eric Martindale (Wegieland) - send marks out of 10 to refvote@grange.demon.co.uk

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