Pars 1 Saints 0 League Table Here
Team :: Jesus,McQ,Blaster,Forrest Gump,Father
Dougal,Dassa,Pope, Kano,O'Halloran,Legend,McMahon
Subs :: Lowndes,Eusebio,Chief,Weir,Robertson
Thud.
That was the delightful sound of the Saints support coming back to earth with a nasty bump. After the delights of the last few months seeing Europe, cup finals and a decent Scottish Cup run only slightly soured by the gubbings by the OF, Saints are well and truly back to normal with a crap performance against the Pars who were not better than Saints, only hungrier. Christ I know we all hate the Gorgie Gits but I'm sure they can get relegated without our help.
Even before kick-off the Saints side had a slightly surreal look about it. Yet again Legend had a new striking partner up front as Gerry 'He must be good at something' was pushed forward whilst the right wing of midfield was covered by one-time defender Daniel Griffin. Left side was held by central midfielder Dassa and in the middle was Kane and Pope with the latter finally getting his first starting slot for the full team.
The early stages were scrappy to say the least with both sides struggling to adapt to blustery conditions. The midfield quickly settled down to being crap with the exception of Pope who showed more control and skill in the first 10 minutes than Phizzy has in the last 2 games. But that wasn't enough when the balls to the front men were only finding space or more than probably one of the inbreds defenders. At the other end only crap finishing from the Pars forwards and some last-ditch tackling from the Saints defence kept the score goalless although Oweny (to use a Chico-ism) should have been booked for a blatant handball.
Things got worse for Saints (and the away supports attitude towards our pal Stuart Dougal) when Petrie went in late on McQ. With the Saints defender struggling to even stand the ref let play go on then blew for a foul a minute later. Father Dougal puts the free kick out to let the Saints right-back get some treatment. Dougal refuses and forces the Pars to take the shy - to their credit they gave the ball back to Saints but it still meant we were down to 10 men whilst McQ had his knee strapped.
Of course with the ref showing his true colours it got worse when Pope sent a lovely through ball for Gerry. For once the player was onside and broke forward into the box before being felled by 2 Pars defenders. Still we had chances with a Pope shot just going over and a Gerry lob just wide of the post.
Second-half saw Saints losing their shape. Legend and Gerry gradually faded from the game and Danny and Dassa proved that they are not wingers. We had some pressure but Butler was picking up any high balls sent forward (that was of course unless Dougal gave a foul for the Pars for no reason). Danny had a low drive saved.
But on the hour we went behind. Graham got the ball at the corner flag from Dods and Blaster (the latter putting in one of his worst performances for Saints to date). He took the ball along the bye-line (Gerry please note) and cut back for Petrie to shoot past Main. After that there was no real way back for Saints especially when a long ball from the Pars defence was intercepted by McQs arm. Last man etc meant he got the red card although it looked more accidental than deliberate.
Then St. Sandy went daft bringing on Nathan and Capn Jim for Legend and Pope. Now given that we were already being beat what the hell was the point of a: bringing on another defender when Danny was more than capable of playing at right back (and IMHO Weir didn't look 100% yet) and b: taking off arguably our best and most skilful player whilst keeping Gerry 'Not much good at all' on the park. Unfortunately the changes made sod all difference as the midfield lost all shape and started opting for the long ball punted up the park. Even bringing on San Miguel for Danny made no difference.
Only other incident was a booking for Blaster in the dying minutes which given Stuart the Saints Haters form was only surprising in that it wasn't another red.
Overall we were shite. Only Pope can come out of the game with any credit at all. There's now 2 weeks until TFOD come to stink up the Holy Ground. We need a striker NOW !!!
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | Points |
| Rangers | 28 | 19 | 5 | 4 | 63 | 24 | 62 |
| Celtic | 27 | 15 | 7 | 5 | 67 | 25 | 52 |
| Kilmarnock | 27 | 12 | 9 | 6 | 32 | 21 | 45 |
| Saints | 28 | 11 | 9 | 8 | 32 | 35 | 42 |
| Motherwell | 28 | 7 | 10 | 11 | 27 | 41 | 31 |
| Aberdeen | 28 | 8 | 7 | 13 | 31 | 51 | 31 |
| Dundee | 28 | 8 | 6 | 14 | 24 | 43 | 30 |
| Dundee Utd | 27 | 7 | 8 | 12 | 28 | 31 | 29 |
| Dunfermline | 28 | 4 | 15 | 9 | 22 | 38 | 27 |
| Hearts | 27 | 6 | 6 | 15 | 22 | 40 | 24 |
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