Temple Of Saints - Back to the Sexiness

Scottish Premier League - 29/04/2000

Arabs 0 Saints 1 League Table Here

Team : Robbo,Chief,Blaster,Weir,Dods,Kane,Pope,Del,Jones, Parker,Keyring
Subs : Gow,Paddy,Millar,Danny,Messiah

This is more like it. Loads of Saintees in a big travelling support sitting together without moaners or bigots amongst their number and allowed to shout our hearts out watching some of the sexiest football of the season. Forget the scoreline Saints dominated this match totally and a 3 or 4 goal margin would have been well deserved.

With Danny on the bench thanks to an argument with a Cossacks boot midweek, Chief was pulled to the right back slot whilst Jones replaced Paddy as the partner for Kiegan up front and Pope came back into the centre of midfield. And full marks to the Saints players for wearing their "Hands off PRI" T-shirts in the pre-match warm-up. Not that the Arabs would have been able to read give the Tayside ghettos large illiteracy problem.

So to the game and Saints started really well in the first 5 minutes with the ball actually being played along the pitch for a change. Chief at right-back was a revelation as he (wait for it) moved into empty space and actually beat a man or two, whilst Kiegan and Jones were winning plenty of possession up front. Chances were all Saints way in the early stages. Keyring tried a repeat of the Easter Rd free-kick routine only to see the ball go wide, whilst the Corporal saw a header go just over the Arabs bar from an excellent Parker Cross.

The Corporal then made a good chance for himself from a goalmouth scramble only to see the defence clear and Kiegan saw Combe save well when he sent a low drive. Saints only weakness at this time was the lack of support from central midfield as Kane looked slow and Pope struggled to get any sort of rhythm going. But you could tell it was going to be our day when the Arabs struggled to muster any sort of attack.

Even the arse refereeing from Tom Brown (or "Brown by Name, Shite by Nature" as he was referred to) couldn't put that much of a damper on things. A 50-50 ball between a Blackley Bastard and Weir resulted in a booking for the Saints skipper, whilst Chief (who looks a natural right-back) was penalised for foul throws several times.

Saints should have taken the lead just at half-time. A cracking through ball from Del found Parker who beat two Arab thugs only to see Combe come out to save well at his feet.

Second-half saw Saints start just as strongly. We were denied a blatant penalty for handball after 50 minutes. Pope took a corner on the right which was headed goalwards by Del only to be punched clear by an Arab defender. Of course Tom Shite didn't give the decision and Blaster picked up a yellow card for daring to voice an opinion on the matter. Two minutes later De Vos scythed down Kiegan to be denied the free-kick which angered the Saints fans. It didn't help that the Arabs broke down the park and only a Robbo save stopped them taking the lead. Three minutes after that he repeated the feat when Dods was slack with a back header and Robbo blocked from Mathie and Dods cleared the rebound.

Still that was it from Judas' Whores as Saints got the ball back in the Arabs half. Pope had a good shot from the edge of the box well saved by Combe but it was only delaying the inevitable. And in 66 minutes a Pope ball to the middle of the box (after Tom Shite asked for a free-kick to be retaken for the 999th time) saw an unmarked Dods head home - even he couldn't miss that one.

A couple of minutes later and it should have been 2-0. Keyring took a short corner on the right and Kane sent a cracking volley goalwards only for it to hit off the post. By now we were attacking at will with Weir, Dods and Chief all pushing forward. Kiegan had a couple of good chances and of course some dodgy offside decisions helped the Arabs as well.

With 10 minutes to go the Arabs won some corners but there was never any real danger although Saints were a little slack in clearing their lines. The Corporal saw a shot go just over and Kiegan had another one on one effort saved. The latter went off after 86 minutes to be replaced by the Messiah but managed to collect both the sponsors and my MoM award. The guy will be a star.

Millar came on for the knackered Pope as well just before the end but by that time the Arabs were sneaking out the door and the Saints fans were having a rather nice sing-song - bit like some of the games last year really (cue nostalgia mode).

So MoM for me was Kiegan. But special mentions to for Chief who hardly put a foot wrong at right-back, Del for some classy play, Jones for showing some sort of form, Keyring and finally Cap'n Jim who showed at the end that he knows what these sort of wins mean to the fans. We still need to learn to kill off teams and it would be nice to see a striker score occasionally but personally I'll settle for this sort of performance every week.

Oh yeah and cheer up Sumo Sturrock - the Rockies are very nice at this time of year.

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