Temple Of Saints - Clueless

Scottish Premier League - 30/10/99

Motherwell 1 Brainless Saints Sod All League Table Here

Team : Main,McQ,Bollan,McCluskey,Danny,Dasovic,Chief,Nathan,Thomas,McMahon
Subs : Robertson,Kane,Miguel,O'Boyle,Malcolm

This is getting worrying. Despite the kick up the arse that the team should have received after their last few results there was very little on show today to give the impression that the message is getting through. So for the benefit of any players reading this I'll try myself - GET YER FINGERS OUT OR WE'RE GOING DOWN !!!

As promised St. Sandy shook the side up a bit with Georgio and Kane dropped to the bench as Messiah got a start up front and Gerry the Karaoke King took over on the right wing with O'Halloran moving to the middle alongside Dassa.

Things started well enough for Saints, despite McQ posted missing at right back to let ex-Saintee Twaddle through. We should have had a penalty in the 3rd minute as a through ball sent the Messiah into the box where he was bundled to the ground by a Well defender. Still it wasn't for nothing as the Flying Turd picked up a calf strain and the Saints support got the entertainment of watching him almost fall from the stretcher as the medics struggled to cope with his fat arse.

That was it as far as the entertainment went really as 5 minutes later we were again carved open - by Don Goodman fer fucks sake. A cross ball found Twaddle and he took his time before blasting the ball past Main. After that the Buckfast-Quenching ones took control of most of the game despite Saints enjoying a lot of possession. Gerry had a couple of runs and Nathan and Messiah both tried to get into the box but the Well defence was well organised.

As for the rest of the side, again there was no penetration from either wing (with Keyring especially struggling) and both full backs posted missing several times. Dasovic struggled in midfield and looks in dire need of a rest. The only slightly cheerful thing from Saints performance was the play of Chief in the central midfield role. Well play is perhaps too strong a word but he got his share of tackles in and managed on several occasions to actually push the ball in a forward direction.

Attack-wise chances were fairly limited. Danny in 20 minutes had a long-range effort stopped by Woods in the Well goal but given that it was the first Saints shot on target since Nathan scored against TFOD it wasn't too bad. 10 minutes later and Keyring had the ball on the edge of the box and saw a narrow angled drive just glance past the post.

Second-half saw Georgio on for Keyring and he moved up front as Messiah moved to left wing - where to be frank he was shite. The game continued in much the same way as the first half with Saints having plenty of possession but with little to show for it. Yes we had some corners and a couple of shots on goal but IMHO we never even looked like scoring. Even worse though was the lack of teamwork that crept into the play.

After Miguel came on for Gerry on 75 minutes and we had 4 (!!) forwards on the park, there was a lot of selfish play from Eusebio and Nat King Goals rather than the short passes which were the only way we were going to get into the box.

With 10 minutes to go St. Sandy put on Kane for Messiah (who looks well short of Premiership match fitness levels) but he had little impact. Yes we forced a series of corners and Bollan came close with a header but it never even looked like being our day. In fact we almost went two down in the closing stages but for a point blank save from Main.

MoM for me was O'Halloran. He played a lot better in the central midfield role and covered a lot of ground. Christ, but he even went forward a couple of times. As for the rest of the newcomers, Gerry had some moments but Messiah was a very big disappointment - he looked no better than Roddy did on Wednesday night. The other problem IMHO was McQuillan. He didn't seem to be playing for the jersey any more - he was badly caught out of position several times as Twaddle had all the room to get crosses in throughout the game.

So where do we go from here? We BADLY need the midfield to push forward. St Sandy should tell the strikers not to even think of dropping back to help the defence. And maybe it's time to blood some of the youngsters. Daryn Smith, Lauchlan and Marc McCulloch couldn't be much worse than what's on display just now.

Personally I'm getting very worried. We've lost two games to pretty crap opposition in the last week without even looking like scoring a goal. That's relegation form.

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