Saints 1 Luggys Lice 0 League Table Here
Team ::
Main,McQuillan,Bollan,Dods,Kernaghan,Griffin,O'Neil,Scott,
Kane,Legend,Miguel
Subs :: Keyring,Nathan,McBride,McMahon,Robertson
Not one for the purists (or indeed anyone interested in a display of classy flowing football) and neatly summed up by Billy Kirkwood in the post-match interviews as 'mingin'. Still we got the points and were able to have a good laugh at the aurally-challenged ex-manager and his team of Lice Carriers as they dropped further into the relegation zone.
After last weeks defeat St. Sandy rang the changes in the home side. Legend returned to a starting line-up alongside Eusebio whilst Danny came into midfield. O'Halloran and Connolly were the players to drop out of the squad whilst McMahon was relegated to the bench. Nathan passed a fitness test to take a slot in the dugout alongside John Paul McBride, the new signing from Sellick who is in dire need of a decent nickname.
The opening minutes saw Saints looking more nervous than ever. The Legend moved upfield immediately but the Saints midfield seemed to be playing a man-marking game which meant that the likes of Del had to drop back continually to mark Shell PetrolStation, whilst Tubby Mathie (who has the star quality and ability of Peter Fyhr) and Diver Dodds caused some problems to the Saints defence in the early stages, although both sides seemed to have difficulty in keeping the ball on the ground.
Still Danny seemed to settle into his central midfield role well (Kane was still crap), and Phizzy showed some touches to make it look like last weeks show of form wasn't a one-off. The first real chance came after 12 minutes when Saints sent a cross into the box which was met by Roddy being bundled to the ground. With the Arab tink lying cliutching his head (obviously elbowing himself on the follow through after Legend) McCluskey pointed to the spot. Sieb DickStraw then had a little piece of off-the-ball psychology with spot kicker Blaster Bollan before being sent the wrong way and made to look like a tit as Saints took the lead.
After that moment of drama though the game became very scrappy with stray passes from both sides leading to some poor play. The Arabs fought back and Saints defence had to look lively a few times (with Dods still not looking as though his confidence is back). As for the midfield yet again there was little support for the front men as too often Saints resorted to a long punt forward in the hope of finding a blue shirt. Unfortunately Legend was losing out in the aerial battle and the only real threat came through balls down the wing to San Miguel who provided the best entertainment of the day (including a cheeky backheel to McQ).
At the other end Dodds almost got the equaliser when he beat the offside trap and only a last-ditch tackle by Father Dougal in the box prevented him scoring.
The second-half saw more of the same with Saints penned into their own half for much of the play. And with Main looking more and more suspect at the cross balls it seemed as though it would only be a matter of time before the score was even. However, the defence held solid and seemed to improve as the game wore on. Midfield was another matter and with Del unable to go forward much and Danny spending most of the time putting tackles in (covering for the ineffective Kane as well) and Phizzy looking like the Phizzy pre-Parkhead there was little movement up front.
After seeing Sturrock uncharacteristically play all his subs in the 90 minutes St. Sandy replaced San Miguel with Kid Goals with 20 minutes to go. Straight away you realised what the Saints attack had been missing as the ginger-haired one proceeded to cover every blade of grass and basically put the wind up the arabs defence winning corners, beating defenders and coming close on a couple of occassions with cheeky shots. Unfortunately none went in but it was a glimpse of the attacking flair that has been missing in past weeks.
St. Sandy took Legend off towards the end and brought on Gerry the Karaoke King and for a moment McMahon looked hungry for the ball - only for a moment mind. Still Saints had a couple of close shots towards the end with DickStraw forced into a couple of saves before the traditional 5 minutes of injury time and backs to the wall defending.
Overall it was a pretty poor game for both sides. Still for a change some luck was on our side. MoM for me was Del although I get the feeling that if Kid Goals had been on for the 90 the award might have gone to him. Still a forward line of Eusebio and Kid Goals might bear fruit in the near future.
As for Judas and his 'bigger' club? Personally a few points for the Pars and it could be the trips to Love St. next year for the poor sod. The curse of Billy Dodds strikes again? Oh my bleeding heart.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | Points |
| Rangers | 23 | 15 | 5 | 3 | 47 | 21 | 50 |
| Kilmarnock | 23 | 11 | 8 | 4 | 31 | 14 | 41 |
| Celtic | 23 | 11 | 7 | 5 | 52 | 22 | 40 |
| Saints | 24 | 9 | 9 | 6 | 29 | 33 | 36 |
| Motherwell | 24 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 23 | 30 | 29 |
| Aberdeen | 24 | 7 | 6 | 11 | 27 | 40 | 27 |
| Dundee | 24 | 7 | 6 | 11 | 21 | 34 | 27 |
| Hearts | 24 | 6 | 6 | 12 | 23 | 34 | 24 |
| Dundee Utd | 24 | 5 | 8 | 11 | 23 | 29 | 23 |
| Dunfermline | 23 | 2 | 13 | 8 | 18 | 34 | 19 |
Remember to vote on todays ref Jim McCluskey - send marks out of 10 to refvote@grange.demon.co.uk