Temple Of Saints - Back to Normal

Scottish Premier League - 19/09/99

Soap-Dodgers 1 Saints 2 League Table Here

Team : Main,McQ,Bollan,Weir,Danny,Keyring,Kane,O'Neil,Chief,Nathan Messiah
Subs : Robertson,McBride,Georgio,McCluskey,Eusebio

Ah what better way to end the experience of being a Saintee over the last few days than a trip to the Juteopolis flea pit. Yup from Monte Carlo to Dens. And after Thursday night's performance it was a chance to see if the players still had any fight in them. Of course they did - they were playing the soap dodgers after all.

With the chance for Saints fans to experience the new all-seated SPL standard stadium, there was a large travelling support many of whom (me included) resplendent in the new lucky Monaco top. Even certain flags made it to the game before Tayside's finest porkers decided to remove them for "being offensive". Strange how they let so many hygienically-challenged soap dodgers into the ground though eh?

St. Sandy did make some squad changes although perhaps not the wholesale rotation we expected. Nathan came off the bench for a starting place whilst Eusebio dropped down. Robertson replaced Dolph as substitute keeper while Legend and Frankie-Boy dropped out the limelight entirely. Dassa was still suffering from the effects of the flu so missed out once more.

From the start though Saints went on the attack with Messiah and King Goals starting to form a decent understanding. And for once the midfield pushed forward with Kane and O'Halloran in the middle getting stuck into the tackles whilst Del and Keyring ran the wings. A few early chances went a-begging as the Scumdee defenders tried to frustrate the play at every opportunity, including some strange need to fall to the ground as if shot any time the Ginger Bomber was near them.

Of course this being a Saints game the first Scumdee attack saw Yates break down the right in 10 minutes and skin a very slow looking Blaster before sending a lob over Jesus. Still we didn't let that stop us from vocalising our loathing for them even if it did seem that the players were in shock for a few minutes.

The first real controversy came a few minutes later when the Messiah beat the offside trap and went through on goal on his own. Out came Douglas to haul him down outside the box. With everyone expecting the red card McCurry the ref only produced yellow which only succeeded in incensing the Saints fans and players even further.

After that the first half saw several mistakes made by Saints (especially McQ and Blaster) as we kept the pressure on with Main only forced to make one real save. Meanwhile at the other end Nathan saw an angled drive go over, Douglas saved a Bollan free kick, Messiah was inches wide with a spectacular overhead effort and Douglas made a world-class save from a Nathan volley to keep the score at 1-0 at the break.

Second-half saw Saints looking more lethargic as Scumdee kept us pressed into our own half. Main made a great block from a Grady effort when the Wegie/Coagey tink should have scored, as defensive mistakes looked like costing us dear. The tiring Messiah was taken off after 70 minutes to be replaced by Miguel but it looked like Saints would again lose out for their efforts. Then, with 15 minutes to go on came Georgio. Personally I was expecting Nathan to go off as he was looking jaded but it was Keyring who was removed as Saints went to a 4-3-3 formation with Georgio in a holding role up front behind Nathan and Eusebio.

And what a difference it made. It was like watching the old Saints from just after St. Sandy took over, as we proceeded to destroy the Scumdee defence with some wonderful short passing. Georgio's ability to hold the ball meant Kane and Del had more of a free role to get into space and the strikers had more room to move.

Six minutes to go and Saints eventually got some reward. A series of shots and clashes in the Scumdee box ended up with Nathan slotting the ball home and sending the Saints fans mental. Two minutes later and he made superstardom with a beautiful low 12-yard shot past Douglas after some wonderful passing moves again involving Georgio. Despite McCurry's efforts to ensure Scumdee equalised, Saints never looked back from their lead and the final whistle saw some scenes of bedlam as the players and fans celebrated.

MoM for me was a tie between Nathan and Kane with the latter having an excellent controlling performance in midfield. We still have some weak links, with Chief struggling in a defensive role and two full backs who need their arses kicked big time.

But after Thursday's heroics and a win over the Scum today - who's complaining?

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