Temple Of Saints - More Sexiness

Scottish Premier League - 02/05/2000

Saints 2 Sheep 1 League Table Here

Team : Robbo,Chief,Blaster,Weir,Dods,Kane,Pope,Del,Jones, Parker,Keyring
Subs : Gow,Gerry,Millar,Danny,Messiah

This is weird. Two wins, two classy performances and another unchanged line-up. My God Sandy with tactics like these we might even finish the season on an optimistic note. Tonight's game wasn't quite as one-sided as the Tannadice match but despite the arse of a ref in Stuart Dougal Saints by far deserved their win. Mind you it would be nice to see the strikers get on the scoresheet occasionally.

St. Sandy's only change was to add Gerry to the bench instead of Lazarus with Kiegan the WonderKid keeping his strikers role up front.

From the off we were up and at 'em with a couple of early corners. Corporal and WonderKid seem to be developing a decent partnership and the latter's pace was causing all sorts of trouble for the Sheep defence with several fouls on the Saints striker - not that Dougal noticed. The early shots saw Darren "Striker" Dods get a decent header in which Grandad Leighton just palmed away. Chances were fairly limited though with the Sheep defence playing the offside trap well.

At the other end Saints defence looked fairly solid although Chief was having a rough time with Winters and at the other side of the pitch Bollan looked very slow. Still the midfield were on form with Keyring, Pope and Del linking well with some lovely short passes. After one penalty claim was turned down when Kiegan was chopped on the edge of the box the only real shot was a Corporal long-range effort which went just wide. We were in control by now with the only problem being a tendency to hang onto the ball too long in the box rather than have a shot - Parker in particular has a bit of selfishness about him (not that that isn't a bad thing in a striker).

So with Saints in charge and the game 27 minutes old the usual event occurs. A break up the park on the right catches the defence flat-footed, a cross into the box and an unmarked Winters heads home. The sweetie-rustlers in the North Stand woke up then.

But this is a sexy Saints side and we went straight back up the park and were unlucky not to score. Del's cross was met by the Corporal who turned and shot only to see the ball blocked. Kiegan had another go only to see his shot deflected for a corner. From the corner, Saints won the ball and Kane knocked the ball back across goal. It broke out to the right to be chipped back in for the (yet again) unmarked Dods to head home from 10 yds and send the home fans mental. The sweetie rustlers returned to their Pan Drops.

Solberg was finally booked for the 29158th foul after 32 minutes. Saints still had time for a couple of more chances. Dods missed another great heading opportunity and Del had a couple of shots well saved. At the other end Stavrum saw his long-range effort well held by Robbo, but Saints were well on top. And a word about Robbo - his game is improving all the time and tonight his kicks were amazing.

Second half saw Zero the Diver come on for the other Moroccan. Straight away we were treated to his usual overacting. But the Sheep were trying to get back into the game and Saints found it difficult to get any rhythm. We had plenty of skill to come though and Kiegan picked up a long ball from Blaster in 51 minutes. Some wonderful solo play in the box when he took on 3-4 defenders unfortunately ended up with Kane losing possession. Keyring then saw a shot go wide whilst at the other end Zero broke through and lobbed the oncoming Robbo. Only a timely header from Chief saved the day.

As the game stretched on Kiegan looked pretty knackered. However St. Sandy chose to put Millar on after 75 minutes for Pope with the latter looking distinctly pissed off when he went to the dugout. Having said that Millar looked the part when he came on and some sharp passing saw some good build up play for Saints which ended in Jones just shooting wide from a snapshot.

With 10 minutes to go it looked like our luck wasn't going to change when a corner was headed against the bar by the Corporal with the keeper well beaten. Weir hit the rebound only to see the ball stopped on the line and cleared. Then Cap'n Jim had his go with 4 minutes left only to see his header go wide.

But this is Sexy Saints again and we know never to give up. With the minute's injury time under way, Chief broke down the right and send a ball into the box. Corporal Jones got in front of his marker and headed the ball down and out into the path on Kane who saw his run end in a low drive from 12 yards which left Grandad Leighton for dead, the ball in the net, the sweetie rustlers leaving in droves and the home fans smiling a lot. There was hardly time for the beaten Sheep to kick-off before Dougal blew for full-time.

MoM for me was difficult. Del and Kiegan had good games and both Keyring and Dods continued their good form. But for me the Corporal looked the part of the big target man we've been looking for all season. His play in the box was excellent with the only problem being a slight lack of pace. But the whole team looked full of confidence tonight and actually entertaining to watch.

Sexy Fitba's Back !!!!

Remember to vote on todays ref Stuart Dougal send marks out of 10 to refvote@grange.demon.co.uk or just select a rating and press the button below ::

Saints Index Fixtures Index Grange Index

Any problems / comments mail webmaster@grange.demon.co.uk