Temple Of Saints - Robbed

Scottish Premier League - 24/10/99

Saints 1 Cheating FOE 2 League Table Here

Team : Main,McQ,Bollan,McCluskey,Danny,Dasovic,Kane,Chief,Nathan Georgio,Keyring
Subs : Robertson,Del,Miguel,Pope,Messiah

First of all a confession - I'm trying to be as calm as possible writing this report but should I towards the end degenerate into a foaming rage at a certain descended-from-Russian-linesmen apology for a referee (and by Christ he's still apologising to TFOE scum) then it's probably due to some stupid ideals I have about fair play and sportsmanship.

St. Sandy stuck by the same mob that got a draw at Tynecastle last Saturday with only Robertson instead of Dolph being the sole change on the bench. As for TFOE they were without one diver but brought in plenty more. They're fans were the usual intelligent elite who almost managed to shut up for the full minute's silence in respect of Bruce McDiarmid who died last week. Scum.

As you would expect, Saints showed far too much respect to the Wegies in the first half with Verruca and the-one-thats-as-good-as -Owen(NOT) getting a lot of room. But credit where its due, Danny (looking like he'll be away soon on current form) and McCluskey both kept them under control for the early stages. This meant that the cheats were limited so some crappy long-range efforts from some of their East European players (not that this would add any fuel to the descended-from-Russian-linesmen commies theory regarding match officials). Up front Nathan and Georgio look to have the beginnings of a good partnership whilst Chief actually got forward on the right wing and Keyring had several runs on the left. Central midfield was a problem though with both Kane and Dasovic reluctant to push forward to support the attack.

Still we were holding our own if not getting much action on goal. That changed on the half-hour though when Kane won the ball off a cheat. He sent a through pass to Georgio who slipped the ball onto Nathan running into the box. Grant Mitchell tried some Cockney moves to put Nat King Goals off but before he could pretend to be Scottish the ball was in the net.

Dallasovich decided that this was obviously not part of the plan for his sense of fair play so 5 minutes later Nick was booked, closely followed by McCluskey. Meanwhile Petta (wasn't he a Blue Peter dog?) was allowed to dive all over the place and the-one-thats-as-good-as-Owen(NOT) showed he can't manage one-on-one when a Bollan tackle snatched the ball away in the box.

Half-time came with the "best fans in Scotland" shite living up to their hype - what other team would rejoice in Scotland getting beat at rugby?

Second-half started with Saints on the back pedal and it was only two minutes old when TFOE equalised. The-one-thats-as -good-as-Owen(NOT) got the ball in the box. For some reason McCluskey and Danny hesitated and the diver got a low shot in past Main. Still we fought back into the game although the lack of effort from certain players had St. Sandy out shouting the odds. Nathan came close with a header from a Keyring corner and Danny had a shot deflected as we pushed for the winner.

Dallasovich managed a pathetic attempt at fair play by booking Regi Wanker for dissent - although failing to take action as the wee shite scythed down McQ a minute earlier saw him stick to tradition. As did the lack of action when Verruca raised his hands at several Saints defenders - not once but several times.

Miguel came on for Nathan with 25 minutes to go after the Ginger One picked up a calf knock. However he wasn't as effective in partnership with Georgio (who ran his arse off all night) and struggled on the slippy pitch, although he almost snatched a winner before being beaten to the ball by One-Ball Stubbs.

Ten minutes to go and we thought we'd be safe when TFOE had one chalked off for offside. But that was just a taste of the controversy to come. After adding on plenty of injury time (with the irony being TFOE scum booing a grounded Bollan as he got treatment - changed days from Lyon eh?), Keyring tried to head the ball back to Main who only failed to prevent the corner. TFOE take the corner and the ball comes off Wankhorse and hits Main. His save hits the post before being cleared by the Saints defence. But of course by this time Dallasovich had taken the 1966 time warp and gave the goal.

After that the fight went out of Saints. Well at least until the final whistle when Main, McQ, Bollan and almost every blue shirt in the ground made their feelings known to Dallasovich. MoM for me was Georgio although it was hard to fault any of the players for effort. Del is well out of favour now but I'd still like to see a Georgio, Nathan, Miguel line-up in attack. Defensively we have little to worry about. Both Danny and McCluskey had fine games.

I'm still bloody furious though - even BBC Wegieland and John Barnes didn't think it was a goal. I only hope Saints make the strongest possible protest to the SPL - Christ knows what will happen if something like the point dropped affects the standings at the end of the season.

If there is a glimmer of hope from tonight, it's that we now have one very angry and pissed off club, players and support. And we play Judas' scum in three days.

Payback time.

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