Temple Of Saints - Classy

Scottish Premier League - 26/02/2000

Still Winning Saints 2 Judas' Whores 0 League Table Here

Team : Dolph,Danny,Bollan,Weir,Dods,Kane,Chief,Frail,Paddy,Del,Pope
Subs : Robertson,Nathan,Gerry,Jones,McCulloch

Well what can I say except that after a convincing performance like that all the dreams and hopes from the start of the season are back with a vengeance. We play like this for the rest of the season and there will be no stopping us. This was easily the best Saints performance since Monaco with sexy football back in abundance.

St. Sandy went for the TFOD formation of 4-4-2 with Danny at right-back, Frail in midfield and Del partnering Lazarus up front. Greedy Bastard failed to make the Arabs squad which given the result was a bit of a pity.

Opening stages were nervous and despite Saints having lots of possession a combination of slack passing and thug marking from the Whores meant we posed little threat with Danny coming in for close attention from Pregnant, whilst Hammy the Diver acted the arse up front for the Whores. We forced some corners but a long ball to the back post didn't help, and long-range efforts from Kane and Pope were easily blocked.

Judas made his first sub after 15 minutes with Kalashnikov coming on for some youth prospect. The sole Arabs attack meant a quick save from Dolph as he got down well to a long-range effort, whilst at the other end some good close passing saw Del and Frail come close.

Pregnant was booked for the Whores for trying to kill Lazarus but McCluskey kept fairly good control of the game. Dolph kept us in the game on the stroke of half-time with a class save as Blaster cleared.

Saints started the second-half in much the same way and after 50 minutes, Paddy was hauled to the ground again. This time McCluskey gave the free-kick 20 yards out on the right. Up steps Blaster to take the kick, taps the ball to Danny and suffice to say nothing was going to stop that ball ending in the net as we were treated to a Danny 100mph special. 1-0 Saints and a lot of very quiet Soap-Dodgers.

We were in control now and only a few minutes later Dods came close to making it 2-0 when his header went just wide as Saints enjoyed a seemingly endless series of corners. Of course that was the signal for Saints to ease up and the Coagies began to get back into the game with Judas putting on McMonologue and Twat in an effort to liven things up front. But a Danny clearance off the line preserved our lead as Dolph looked suspect at cross balls.

Our cause wasn't helped by a couple of weird ref decisions as firstly Hammy the Diver was about a mile offside when he broke through - luckily he is as inept as ever and lost the ball. Then Pope broke down the right and was brought down in the box. With McCluskey obviously an avid watcher of Scotland Today and a reader of the Evening News, he waved play on - expect this to happen several times between now and the end of the season as Saints quota of penalties has apparently been exhausted.

St. Sandy put on Nathan for Chief who had put in a lot of good grafting in midfield. Del moved back to the left wing as the Ginger Bomber partnered Lazarus up front. Despite this we were still under some pressure from the Whores as the defence failed to clear it's lines of find a blue shirt with passes (Kane and Pope both suffering from this). Still we got back into the game and started to play the sexy football with one move from Del and Paddy absolutely beautiful as Del played a perfectly-times 1-2 but saw his shot go over the bar. Then Frail on a break down the right saw his low cross missed by several players.

Jones came on for Paddy with 10 minutes to go and he should have scored when he broke through but elected to pass instead. After that the Arabs had some pressure before the piece de resistance from the boys.

Last minute and Del on the left sends a clearance through to Nat King Goals who runs half the pitch and without even trying to cut inside sends a narrow shot past the Whores keeper and into the net to make it 2-0. We would have jeered the Whore supporters at this point but the majority of them had left so we had to settle for singing a variety of songs in the direction of Judas. Oh joy.

MoM for me was a choice between Danny (especially for the goal) and Del with the latter just edging it after putting in some excellent work. He's finally hitting some form again. But it has to be said that apart from Kane looking dodgy a couple of times all the Saints players worked their arses off and easily deserved the 3 points.

There is still hope.

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