Temple Of Saints - Back on Form

Scottish Premier League - 24/04/99

Sexy Saints 1 TFOE Scum 0League Table Here

Team :: Jesus,Danny,Blaster,Forrest Gump,Weir,Dassa,Kano, Del,Keyring,Chief,Miguel
Subs :: Legend,McQ,McCluskey,Il Biscotti,Robertson

This match can probably be seen to be one of the best Saints results of the season. Coming of a tiring 90 minutes at Tannadice on Tuesday and with the Wegie media (present in abundance - one grenade in the gallery could have rid us of Keevins, Traynor, Charlie Prickolas, Rob McLean, Subbuteo Smith and Mad Murdo in an instant) having written off Saints Euro hopes this year, St. Sandys heroes turned in an excellent defensive performance rounded off with a cracking goal from a midfielder playing centre forward to shatter the TFOE dreams.

And if I sound as though I'm really gloating it's cos I just loved the look on the TFOE Scum supporters face as I left the ground - slag off my team or me but call my wife a c**t pal and I'll gloat all season.

Okay back to the unbiased report. St. Sandy unexpectedly put Chief on up front with Miguel instead of the expected Legend in place of the suspended Ginger Bomber. McQ passed a fitness test to take the vacant spot on the subs bench. With the pitch in excellent condition, the game was very open and fast with Sellik channelling all their attacks through Goldilocks and Marko the Prozac King.

However, it was Saints who forced a couple of early corners thanks to good work on the left from Eusebio and Keyring with the former coming in for plenty of attention throughout the match from the Sellik defence. Unfortunately the lack of height in the attack meant that neither came to anything, though Danny came close with a long-range drive cum cross and Dasovic had a couple of shots on goal. At the other end Saints were under pressure for most of the first half.

Despite both Dods and Weir playing to top form, Bollan looked slow to start and too often Sellik seemed to have a spare man forward, especially with the Saints midfield struggling to piece together any flowing moves. Still Jesus was in world-class form and had a couple of excellent saves from Burley and McNamara in the first half which should do his Scotland cause no end of harm, with Pa Broon even deigning to take in the game live. Both teams put in heavy challenges for most of the game with Miguel coming off worst at the receiving end.

Still apart from one rugby tackle by Lambert which referee Kenny Clark gave the other way, at least the man in the middle showed some consistency with bookings for Annoni and Dasovic (although Nicks was for a minor offence), and ignoring the diving antics of Marko the Pill-Popper and Goldilocks with Verruca looking more and more overrated as the half wore on.

Second-half saw Sellik start the livelier with a couple of long-range efforts. But it was a good break by Miguel on the left which saw Saints come alive. He got to the 18 yard box and held the ball up well before crossing for Chief to head home from 6 yards despite the attentions of Wieghorse the Donkey and Vidar the dodgy hairstyle.

After that Sellik came back into the game for a while but Saints could sense that the match was theirs for the taking and began to piece together some wonderful football including the delights of Del showing close control to beat 4 Sellik scum and Miguel almost getting a 2nd after he got a deflection when 1 on 1 with Kerr. With so much to play for by both teams the game looked like it could descend into a blood bath. Wieghorse was booked for dissent (and a challenge 5 minutes later on Del should have led to a red card), whilst the Wegies gave away what seemed to be far too many free kicks, including some specials by Hatchetman Lambert. Saints managed to pick up a yellow as well when Miguel kicked the ball away slightly after being caught in an offside position.

St. Sandy put on McQ for the knackered and bruised Chief. The ex-Scumdee player went to right-back whilst Danny (who has looked really classy the last few games) went to right midfield and immediately used his height to good effect in winning some headers. Il Biscotti came on for Keyring who again had an excellent game even if we are still waiting on him to develop the extra bit of speed to allow him to take on defenders. TFOE put on loads of overhyped scum including some Scouser Elephant Man, an overrated U-21 player who cant even lace Keyrings boots and someone who is so desperate to leave he's even going to play at being Phizzy's understudy in Sheffield.

But it was all to no avail and when in injury time the cries for dodgy penalties started to emit from Marko the Jelly Giant and Goldilocks you just knew that they had run out of ideas.

So three wins out of four over the scum. The whole team played well (with Kane and Dasovic having an excellent 2nd half). MoM is understandably hard to decide but Danny just edges it over Miguel for his hard work at right back. Mentions too for Weir and Gump in central defence. Three clean sheets in a row and Darren proved today what we all knew - keep Goldilocks quiet and TFOE won't even score.

As for the Wegie media, I occassionally turned round to look at them all. Keevins looked in mourning (either that or it was just his usual vacant 'what day is it?' look), whilst the best was the black look given by Prickolas to the masses of Saints fans shouting 'Charlie, Charlie what's the score?' at the final whistle.

Remember to vote on todays ref Kenny Clark (Paisley) - send marks out of 10 to refvote@grange.demon.co.uk

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