Blown it Saints 1 Arabs 2
Team :
Main,McQ,Bollan,Kernaghan,Danny,Dasovic,Kane,O'Neil,Chief, Nathan,Miguel
Subs : Keyring,Georgio,McMahon
Christ sometimes you can be so bloody annoyed when you're a Saintee. I'm still trying to come to terms with this result. Despite having 99% of the pressure and Arabs being as bad as I can remember, two stupid goals lost and we're out of the cup. And it's to that bunch of Jug-Eared Judas Scum. Read on for the Saints guide on how to blow a lead. Shite.
St. Sandy went with the same starting line-up that fared so well in Europe (and that seems a long time ago now) with Chief somehow keeping a starting jersey. On the bench he went for attack with Georgio, Keyring and finally fully fit McMahon.
Well the start was a typical derby cup-tie. Plenty of hard tackles and the first chance for Saints fans to see the new continental trialists that Judas had got for all his Air Miles. And they were crap - fouling, cheating and some of the worst diving I've seen outside an Olympic swimming pool. Saints had all the early pressure with little to show for it. At the other end Main was forced into an easy save.
15 minutes gone though and the game comes to life. Nathan feeds the ball to Eusebio on the wing who sees his cross handled by an Arab (well actually it might have been a Jew in Kalashnikov but who's splitting hairs). McCluskey duly points to the spot. Up steps Blaster Bollan and duly lives up to his nickname. Yup he blasts the ball. Unfortunately his other nickname is Miss Bollan as the ball cannons off the post and out for a throw-in. You almost got the feeling it might be one of those nights.
And the feeling was confirmed a couple of minutes later when Nat King Goals was brought down from behind. Recovering from his lapse in crap refereeing though McCluskey waves play on. Saints still pressed on with Del and Nathan causing all sorts of problems and Kane and Jetlag Dazza working wonders in midfield. Defensively Kernaghan wasn't on top form but he was more than compensated for in Danny who is improving in leaps and bounds this season.
We had a few more chances before half-time as Chief saw a couple of weak headers saved, McQ went wide, Dazza saw a shot saved and Miguel lost out to a very dodgy offside decision. At the other end Main was made to work for his pay with a tremendous double save from Dodds after Kernaghan slipped up.
Second-half was only 7 minutes old when Dasovic was brought down on the edge of the box 20 yards from goal. Up steps Blaster, Danny and Kane to stand round the ball. Blaster dummies and Danny sends a swerving free-kick round the wall and past Combe in goal to give us the lead.
Of course we now let up the pressure and 10 minutes later the scores were level when Saints defence were caught sleeping. A cutback saw the sub Arab send a fluky looping header past a stranded Main.
Still we didn't think we were going to lose although a total lack of activity on the bench was worrying as Chief looked lost as ever and Del faded quickly from the game. We had a couple of chances and caused their defence plenty of problems but some poor refereeing and tiring strikers didn't help matters.
And by the time St. Sandy put on Gerry (back to his crap form of last year) for Miguel the game was past us after Kalashnikov slipped onto a through ball past a static defence to slot home Utds second. They could have had a third as well but Main pulled off another great save.
So no League Cup Final this season. There were some good points in the performance and we didn't really deserve to lose against a poor Arab side. Perhaps the 3 up front sexy football from last season might have made a difference against their defence. Still Danny, Dasovic and Kane all played well tonight and Nathan and Miguel had a fairly decent performance up front.
But we blew it. Chief is being played out of position. Bollan missed another penalty and Del faded quickly in the second-half. St. Sandy got it wrong as well - at 1-0 or even 1-1 Georgio could have made all the difference to the attack.
Ach well you don't get into Europe this way anyway.
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