Temple Of Saints - Give Us A Goal

Scottish Premier League - 29/12/98

Saints 1 Relegation Fodder 1 League Table Here

Team :: Main,McQuillan,Bollan,Dods,Kernaghan,Dasovic,O'Neil,McMahon,Kane,Paddy,Legend
Subs :: Keyring,Griffin,Nathan,Simao,Robertson

Oh God just how bad can it get. Yet another game which sees Saints play crap for the first 45 minutes then when we turn on the skill we cant get the ball into the back of the net and go and lose a stupid goal leaving us scraping a draw. It's happened against the Arabs, Tinks and at Hells Pasture in recent weeks (although we didn't even get a point at Ibrox).

St. Sandy put Roddy in from the start with Keyring dropping to the bench as he stuck by the same 16 as Saturday. On a night when the club made a gesture of PR to the fans by cutting prices a grand total of 6,070 fans braved the winter weather and pissing rain to go to the match - methinks a few more price cuts in decent weather might have a more beneficial effect.

From the start the Pars stuck to the Fife method of playing fitba - punt the ball up the park and try and elbow any defenders out the way. Fortunately for them tonight they met up with yet another crap performance from Father Dougal as he proceeded to gift them ball after ball. Memo to St. Sandy - add passing to a Saints player from defence to the training list for next week. Saints tried to put some pressure on the Pars defence but as in defence there were several players playing well below their best. Chief culprit was Gerry who did the best Jenko impersonation since the Yorkshireman last pissed me off. Far too often he got the ball from defence then passed back. Not once did I see him either beat his man or even try to get behind to receive a long ball. In fact it got so bad that there were times towards the end of the half when the Saints midfield didn't even bother passing to him.

As for the midfield Dasovic ran his arse off as usual and Del (playing despite still suffering from 'flu) was easily MoM as he simply got stuck in about the smelly Fifers. Kane looked far too slow and if there is the slightest doubt about his fitness at the weekend he should be dropped to the bench. Up front Legend tired quickly whilst Paddy, for all the running and skills he showed made little impact.

Saints had 2 justifiable penalty claims turned down by referee Martindale in the first half - first when Legend was felled and the second when McQ was bundled to the ground. And when you see what happened in the second half it made the refusals all the stranger. Despite that we had some chances - Legend and Paddy both forced Butler into good saves - but there was little to talk about.

Both teams emerged unchanged in the second-half and the first 5 minutes or so were pretty dire. Then Saints as at Hunville, decided to start playing some football. With Del and Gerry finally getting some of the ball and some neat running from Paddy, the shots started to fly in. Gerry missed a sitter (which pretty well summed up his night) after being set up by Paddy. Dods and Legend came close whilst Father Dougal saw a good chance go narrowly wide. Add to that the countless clearances off the line by the jammy Pars defence and you could almost predict what was going to happen next.

With 20 minutes remaining Pars sub Graham broke upfield and beat Dods. Going into the box and about to be challenged by Main he knocked the ball forward. Seeing it was about to go out for a goalkick he used all his Ibrox-training to go flying. The ref points to the spot from fully 45 yards away as Main goes mental at the cheat. Cue one yellow card for the keeper and it could have been red if not for the intervention of Nick Dasovic who took over the slagging of the Fifer. Eventually the game continued and Smith sent Jesus the wrong way.

The game seemed destined for a red card when Dasovic was booked 5 minutes later for an incredibly soft challenge (despite the Pars defence escaping with elbows all night). St. Sandy finally listened to what the home support had been crying out for all night and put on Eusebio for Legend. Immediately the Wing Wizards pace started to cause problems and with 9 minutes left on the clock he broke up the left wing. His cross was met by Paddy who managed to square it to the right where Kane was sprinting in. The midfielder didn't even stop to think and a 16-yard rocket went into the net.

Keyring was brought on for Gerry with 5 minutes to go as Saints went in search of the winner. They had to rely on Main for a couple of excellent saves at the other end though before Paddy and Del got shots in, but the score remained 1-1.

MoM was easy - Del simply put in an excellent all-round performance. As for the rest - Eusebio deserves a starting spot on Saturday whilst McMahon and Kernaghan need to get their acts together soon.

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