Temple Of Saints -

Scottish Premier League - 27/10/99

Spineless Saints Sod All Crap Arabs 1 League Table Here

Team : Main,McQ,Bollan,McCluskey,Danny,Dasovic,Kane,Chief,Nathan Georgio,Keyring
Subs : Robertson,Weir,Legend,Parker,Messiah

Oh joy - another pissing wet evening match at McDiarmid and I get to write a match report whilst trying not to shout too much in anger. Well at least this time I'm not ranting at the officials or even the visiting team. Nope this time it's all directed at some of the most spineless, pathetic players on the park. I mean after Sundays debacle we at least had the right to expect some fight and passion in the team. But oh no it was another case of half-hearted challenges and in terms of sexy football it was as attractive as a shag from Davie Dodds.

And don't think the manager can escape the blame either. Having had the spiel in the papers about how Del is dropped due to his lack of form, there is no way IMHO he can justify O'Halloran's place in the team any more. I'm not trying to have a go at the player because he does try but he just doesn't have either the skill or workrate to hold the right wing. Added to that the fact that St. Sandy didn't make one change until 75 minutes by which time we were behind and it leaves me very disillusioned and worried about the rest of the season. And to think it was exactly a year ago tonight we slaughtered the Jambos in the League Cup semi-final.

As for the match, St Sandy stuck by the same side as Sunday with the only changes being on the bench - Del, Pope and Miguel made way for Weir, Legend and Kiegan Parker.

First half was shite for half an hour. Saints tried but just couldn't make any attacks of substance, instead settling for long-range Blaster efforts and a Chief shot which was as effective as a Vinny header. Of course the entire midfield was up to it's usual and refused to go over the halfway line again leaving Nathan and Georgio running around chasing everything.

Still it livened up on the half-hour with the Saints defence caught napping. Main saved one shot off the post and Dodds managed to miss a sitter from all of 2 yards out. That was it really - we managed our first corner on 44 minutes. Not that it came to anything of course as we insisted on playing in high balls for Combe to snatch out the air.

Second half was shite as well for the first 20 minutes. Then the Arabs scored as Saints defence again stood off them with that git Dodds taking all the time in the world to place his shot past Main. Still it acted as a catalyst in a way with St. Sandy putting on Parker and Legend for Chief (who was even worse than before) and Georgio. Nathan moved to the right as Saints went for a 4-3-3 formation.

And it made some difference. Don't get me wrong, we never looked like winning the game, but it seemed like a draw might just be on the cards with Parker making some good runs into the box and only his final touch (and lightweight nature) letting him down. Oh yeah and to rub salt into the wounds Legend missed a sitter in the dying minutes.

MoM for me was nobody. Nathan and Georgio looked good in places and the central defence was again reasonably solid. But midfield is a serious worry with only Dasovic looking even vaguely hungry for the game. Kane cannot play two matches a week and Chief should be dropped now. Keyring is trying but he needs some experienced help in midfield to make any sort of an impact.

God what a difference a year makes.

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