Saints 0 Well 0 League Table Here
Team :: Jesus,McQ,Blaster,Forrest Gump,Weir,Dassa,Kano,
Danny,Del,Keyring,Miguel
Subs :: Chief,Paddy Thingy, McCluskey, Parker,Ferguson
Typical isn't it. We had most of the play, especially in the second half yet somehow the fates conspired to ensure that the Flying Terrorist Turd was made to look good. As if that wasn't bad enough the slender hopes that we still have for getting that third slot have taken another blow with the injuries to two key defenders.
St. Sandy made some changes to last weeks bores with Danny going to right midfield instead of Chief. Del played on the left and Keyring and Eusebio were up front. On the bench were Chief, Paddy Thingy (almost mythical), McCluskey and 17-yr old Kiegan Parker.
Saints started brightly enough although it was obvious that we were going to have to commit bodies to the attack to have a chance of breaking down a tall Well defence. The game was fairly rough in the early stages with Adams getting the first yellow within the first 10 minutes for use of the elbow and generally being a fouling wee git. Eusebio was causing all sorts of problems to the Well defence but as last week showed when he is stuck on his own he is fairly ineffective.
Saints had the first real chance after a couple of headers and a Dods overhead kick from the side had come close. A break from a corner saw a neat pass from Darren which split the Well defence open and found Eusebio bearing through on goal. Of course as usual it went wrong when the flying Terrorist got his multiple pie-capacity bulk in the way to prevent the goal. He made another cracking save before the end of the half when he turned a Eusebio effort round the post.
Del picked up a weird booking when McCluskey (the replacement ref for Fyfe who didnt turn up), booked him for a foul on McMillan although the Well defender escaped with several bad challenges on Danny and Miguel.
Saints were rarely troubled at the back with the defence looking fairly solid. Cap'n Jim was taken off with a knee injury on the half-hour to be replaced by McCluskey and a short backpass from him to an out-of-position Main saw Nevin square the ball only for Dods to clear.
Second-half started fairly evenly but Saints gradually piled on the pressure with the Well defence starting to argue amongst themselves. Dods hit the bar with a header, a couple of deflections went just wide then Kane hit the bar and the Flying Terrorist brought off 3 or 4 excellent saves.
Action at the home end was fairly sporadic - a Don Goodman run into the box saw Bollan make the challenge as the Prehistoric throwback dived looking for a penalty and Spencer forced a save out of Main with a long-range effort.
With Eusebio struggling on his own - a fact plain to all the fans, St. Sandy replaced Danny with Chief which seemed strange given the work that Danny was putting in on the right wing to good effect. Kiegan Parker was then brought on for his debut late on with Keyring who had faded, going off. The last 15 minutes saw Saints pile on the pressure and even a nasty shoulder/arm injury to Darren Dods which led to the defender going off and leaving Saints to finish with 10 men, didn't prevent the attacks as the boys finally started to piece together some good passes.
Even in the last 5 minutes you almost hoped that a goal would come and when a wonderful flowing move from midfield saw the ball squared to Kane it looked almost impossible that he would miss. So he did leaving us holding our heads in our hands.
MoM for me was close. Eusebio ran his arse off for the full 90 minutes and caused all sorts of problems in the Well defence. Too often he was on his own though as the support from midfield (Del especially) was found lacking. But for me Dasovic had a cracking game and despite the heavy strapping on his leg, he never shirked a tackle. Special mention too for Dods who won almost everything in the air, and Danny who had a cracking game on the right wing. It does look like Paddy Thingy's Saints career is over though - with St. Sandy preferring Kiegan Parker over him on the subs bench it's difficult to see how he can force his way back into the first team.
So as expected it's going to come down to the last 2 games. Defeat next week will see us out of the race whilst a draw or win sees us still needing a result against Scumdee on the last game of the season. But hopefully with Nathan free of suspension he'll get a starting slot and provide the much-needed firepower and support for Miguel.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | Points |
| Rangers | 33 | 22 | 6 | 5 | 72 | 29 | 72 |
| Celtic | 34 | 19 | 8 | 7 | 79 | 32 | 65 |
| Kilmarnock | 34 | 14 | 12 | 8 | 45 | 27 | 54 |
| Saints | 34 | 14 | 11 | 9 | 37 | 37 | 53 |
| Dundee | 34 | 12 | 7 | 15 | 33 | 54 | 43 |
| Motherwell | 34 | 9 | 11 | 14 | 32 | 48 | 38 |
| Aberdeen | 34 | 10 | 7 | 17 | 39 | 63 | 37 |
| Hearts | 33 | 9 | 8 | 16 | 35 | 47 | 35 |
| Dundee Utd | 34 | 8 | 10 | 16 | 35 | 42 | 34 |
| Dunfermline | 34 | 4 | 16 | 14 | 26 | 54 | 28 |
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