Scottish Cup Qtr Final - 06/03/99
Scottish Cup Qtr Final - 06/03/99 P45 Hooligans 0 Hampden-Bound Saints 2
Team :: Jesus,McQ,Blaster,Forrest Gump,Father Dougal,
Dassa, Daniel, Phizzy, Kano,Legend,Kid Goals
Subs :: Eusebio,Pope,Chief
Ah the delights of the Cup. Despite all the media hype in the early part of the week that had Saints easy winners you noticed the Wegie tint coming into the latter part of the weeks reports which said that Well were the on-form team (after all they spent fortunes signing OF rejects) and with Rambo 'Shakespeare' McInally predicting a home win on last nights Extra Time any Saintee fan should have been worried. Well we were for all of 10 minutes then realised that there was no way this bunch of overrated dole-fiddling hooligans were going to win - Saints are a team with destiny written all over them !!!
With Del out injured St. Sandy made the surprising decision to play
young Daniel on the right wing in an otherwise unchanged side from the one
that dumped Dundee last week. 'Well had their own problems with Owen the
Overrated (or Oweny as Chic the Pric called him on the radio today) moving
to the Pars amidst behind the scenes bust-up stories. Still they had that
well-known Scotland prospect MarksAnd Spences up front and the Fat
Terrorist in goal (UVF = U Very Fat). And with a very heavy pitch
(probably extra foundations to take the Pie-Munching Terrorists weight) it
never looked like being a wonderfully flowing game of football.
And so it was as in a fairly dire first half the main flashpoints were reserved for the off-the-ball incidents and fouls that, along with some shite refereeing from Wegielands Mike McCurry served to antagonise both sets of supporters. The worst example came when Spencer scythed down McQ. The Well striker was deservedly booked for the incident but obviously the dole-fiddlers felt he was a victime and McQ came in for some rotten treatment at the touchline culminating in a bottle thrown on to the pitch. That along with the chants for the PieMunching Terrorist to sing the Sash just went to prove that not all the Wegieland bigots support TFOD and TFOE.
Main had little to do in the first 45 as Well couldn't even get a shot on target with the 3000 Saints fans behind the goal suffering most from flying footballs. That's not to say that the defence were that great - Forrest Gump and Father Dougal were good in the heart but both McQ and Bollan struggled on the heavy surface and the lack of effort from the midfield (all bar Danny the winger) didn't help matters.
Still when we did push forward we caused the home defence problems. Legend was closest with a couple of efforts which forced the Flying Turd into action, the first of which brought an excellent save and with Mains inaction for the match probably got the terrorist the call-up to the Scotland squad. Kid Goals was in the thick of it as well and he was the first Saints player in the book, obviously for the offence of playing football.
The second-half saw Saints replace Nathan with Miguel (with St. Sandy later admitting that the player didn't look like remaining on the park for 90 minutes). Not long after Chief came on for Danny who had faded on the wing. This was the cue for the game to spring to life with plenty of end-to-end action. Main had to deal with a couple of awkward crosses as Saints defended deep before finally moving the play back up the park.
With 20 minutes to go Saints forced a series of corners. Forrest Gump narrowly headed wide from one but a few minutes later sent the travelling support into raptures when he headed the ball into the net from a Blaster corner (Saints 7th of the match). 7 minutes later it was all over when a long clearance from the Saints defence found Eusebio running clear he played the ball square to an onrushing Legend who headed it back across goal. With the Well thugs, sorry defenders, stopping to allow the Flying Turd to come and collect San Miguel rushed in and chipped the PieMuncher (actually it was probably more a long ball to get past the fat git) to make it 2-0.
After that there was no way back for the P45s. St. Sandy took off the knackered Legend and brought on Pope who showed some good moves on the right wing with Chief and was unlucky not to make it 3 before McCurry gave up on a lost cause and blew for full-time. Legend and Blaster were the other Saints players booked.
So we're in another semi and that's 4 away wins on the trot. There's still a bit of work to be done though - Phizzy looked lost for large parts of the game today and both Kane and Dassa looked slow, although the latter seemed to be struggling for fitness. We missed Del badly on the right wing. Still the defence looked solid with MoM for me Darren Dods. As for the Saints support - we outsung the home tinks for all 90 minutes.
Christ it's almost exciting still having so much to play for in March.
Remember to vote on todays ref Mike McCurry (Glasgow) - send marks out of 10 (minimum 0) to refvote@grange.demon.co.uk