Scottish Cup 3rd Round - 23/01/99
Scottish Cup 3rd Round - 23/01/99 Jet-Lagged Saints 1 Country Hackers 0
Team ::
Main,McQuillan,Bollan,Dods,Griffin,O'Halloran,O'Neil,McMahon,
Kane,Paddy,Miguel
Subs :: Keyring,Preston,Legend
So much for the winter shutdown then. After a 3-week spell without any sexy football the players today obviously thought that we would settle for any old crap. Well they are very wrong. No bones about it, Saints were damn lucky to be into tomorrow's 4th round draw at the first attempt. God, you'd have thought that the nightmare of Brockville last season and the enjoyment they got from making the League Cup Final would be enough of a boost to ensure that Forfar would be nothing more than cannon fodder today. But no, as usual Saints had to work their backsides off to scrape a one goal victory showing the home fans in the process that there are some of their idols whose days as a Saintee must surely be numbered.
With Nathan and Phizzy failing late fitness tests and Father Dougal suspended and Dasovic on his back St. Sandy was forced to make several changes. Danny Griffin was brought in to partner Dods in defence whilst Chief O'Halloran made a welcome return from injury in the centre of midfield. Il Biscotti also made it back to the subs bench. From the start Saints looked uncomfortable on the ball on the wet McD pitch. However with Forfar adopting the Sturrockesque 10 men behind the ball defensive strategy the opening minutes saw little goalmouth action with the only incident of note being a yellow card for Del for a late kick on a Forfar hacker.
The tactics of the 2nd division side were easily visible as they barged and kicked their way out of trouble and with timewasting play from the first minute it was easy to see that this wasn't going to be the walk in the sun (or rain) that we hoped for. Saints had early chances with Paddy and Gerry both making room and a Blaster Bollan rocket going over the bar. But far too often the final pass was basically shit whilst the midfield seemed to be more worried about defending than any attacking moves. Add to that the severe case of travel sickness (symptoms - lethargy and colour blindness) which affected the passing of Kane and Connolly and the game looked like heading the Stenhousemuir road.
The only bright spots amongst the Saints play was the solid form of Danny in defence and the wizardry of Eusebio up front (I lost count of the backheels and flicks that Miguel set up for Paddy). Eusebio came close before the break with a curling effort which narrowly missed the post.
The second half progressed the same way with the home support becoming more and more frustrated with the lack of bite in the Saints attack. Both McMahon and Connolly seemed to lose the ball far too easily or else were beaten to it by a Loon defender. St., Sandy realised this and Legend came on to replace Paddy with an hour on the clock. Five minutes later a smile was put on our faces when with the Forfar defence looking for offside an O'Neil foot reached a cross into the box to slide home the opening goal. Which as it turned out was to be the only goal of the game (despite Del having the chance to get a second near the end and the keeper making a good stop).
Il Biscotti and Keyring came on for Miguel and McMahon but the less said about the last 20 minutes the better - suffice to say that Main missed a cross, they had a lot of corners and the Stenhousemuir comeback looked on the cards for a long time. The sponsors awarded their MoM to Kane which shows just how much of their product was consumed before the game. Personally MoM for me was Danny who looked settled in defence and along with Eusebio and Bollan about the only players willing to play for the jersey.
As for Connolly - absolute crap. He has not presence in the box, his control was rubbish and far, far too often he was just brushed off the ball by an opponent. Kane couldn't pass water today he was that bad. Added to that the fact that he was slower than a Roddy and seemed about as interested as a Fyhr and it looked pretty bad. Chief struggled early on but came into the game more in the second half - at least he was willing to put in a tackle. And Gerry - well he was summed up by my mate as having the 'first touch of Curran, the pace of Roddy and can read the game as well as Jenko' - ie shite.
It's going to be a long run-in to the end of the season.
Remember to vote on todays ref Alan Freeland (Sheepdom) - send marks out of 10 to refvote@grange.demon.co.uk