Temple Of Saints - That's That Then

Scottish Premier League - 21/05/2000

Killie 3 Saints 2 League Table Here

Team : Robbo,Chief,Keyring,Bollan,Dods,Kane,Millar,Del,Jones, Parker,Gerry
Subs : Gow,Crozier,Conway,Pope,Lauchlan

Well that's that then. A pretty average season finishes with Saints playing for about 20 minutes in a game where we were down 3-0 with 15 minutes to go. Even allowing for a makeshift defence the midfield play was pretty pathetic and up front was the same as ever. God knows what they do to deserved the large and loud travelling support that went to Rugby Park today.

With Cap'n Jim sitting amongst the away fans Blaster was moved to central defence with Chief and Keyring taking up the full-back berths. Midfield saw the surprise inclusion of Gerry whilst the subs bench saw places for 16-yr old defender Chris Conway along with Brendan Crozier, Pope and Martin "Whatever happened to..." Lauchlan.

Well from the start it was obvious that the game was being treated as an end of season training match by Saints and Killie with the ref joining in as well in an effort to keep his cards in his pocket for his last SPL game (and God I'm trying to be nice to him here). One thing was clear from the start though - Blaster is no central defender.

Still the opening 10 minutes or so were some cause for optimism as Kiegan chased everything up front and caused some problems and Del on the left wing seemed intent on ending his Saints career with a flourish. Defensively we didn't look too hot but Dods was handling the Elephant Man well and Bollan was dealing with PizzaFace. Only Keyring and Chief seemed to struggle with the pace of Durrant and Fowler on the wings although Chief came into a much better game as the afternoon wore on.

We had the first chance with Kiegan through on goal but as is becoming a habit with the teenager he failed to convert the 1 on 1 chance - still plenty of time for him to improve. Of course straight after that Killie went up the park and Durrant beat the offside trap and sent a low drive goalwards from 20 yards. Robbo his fingertips to it but failed to keep the ball out. Cue for the Saints fans to sing even louder.

Robbo made another great save 10 minutes later before Saints missed a sitter when Kiegan got to the bye line on the right and sent a low cross over which the Corporal failed to connect with.

After that though the first half deteriorated rapidly with Killie packing the midfield and Saints guilty of some of the worst passing of the season - too often the difficult part was done only for the ball to be given to a Killie player. Blaster, Del, Kane, Keyring and Chief were all guilty of this but by far the worst was Gerry - he made no contribution to the game whatsoever. Jones and Del had a couple of shots before half-time but it was Robbo that saved the day when he tipped an Elephant Man header onto the bar in the 5th minute of injury time (we needed that much due to McGowne's brain trying to escape his thick skull earlier in the half - you'd think an ex-Paisley boy like him would know how to stitch wounds).

Second-half saw the miracle of the season when Gerry tried a spectacular volley. It went wide but the thought was there. Meanwhile the Saints fans were keeping up the best atmosphere since Monaco although it was slightly dampened when Killie got past Chief and a low cross from the left was sent into the net by the trunk of the Elephant Donkey.

With Saints 2-0 down and 40 minutes to go St. Sandy started throwing the subs on like they were going out of fashion. Chris Conway made his debut (in the no. 2 shirt) for the crap Keyring which allowed Blaster to move back to left-back and Conway to go into the middle. Then Pope came on for Del who left to some major singing by the Saints fans. Finally Frankie-Boy Lauchlan came on for the shite McMahon and took over the right wing slot with Pope on the left.

The game itself at this point was shite and in 67 minutes we went 3-0 down as Bollan and Kane contrived to give the ball away. A break down the Killie right wing and the ball was cut back for Cockhard to volley home. It could have been 4-0 a few minutes later but for a wonderful Robbo block.

Never say die though and with the Saints support chanting for a goal ("We want one" to be precise), the boyz duly provided. After finally getting a free-kick in the Killie half, the ball was sent quickly into the 6-yd box. Marco Millar was there and he beat a couple of defenders before blasting the ball past Meldrum.

10 minutes later and Saints made it 3-2 with a free kick sent back across goal by Millar and Kiegan made up for his earlier misses (and they were plentiful) by being on the spot to shoot home. Overall it was a fair result (Christ last game and I'm being sporting now?).

With a makeshift defence and a crap midfield we were to put it lightly crap. There were some decent shifts put in from the likes of Chief, Robbo, Kiegan (my MoM) and Millar, but guys like Kane, Jones and Keyring were average at best. It's a bit early to judge Chris Conway but Lauchlan definitely looked the part on the right wing and at least had some passion about his game.

So we finish 5th in the league which given our form from October to Xmas is pretty good going.

And it's only 9 weeks till the first pre-season matches !!!!

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