Temple Of Saints - Robbed

Scottish Premier League - 22/01/2000

Saints 1 Airdrie-In-Disguise 1 League Table Here

Team : Main,McCluskey,Bollan,Weir,Danny,Kane,Chief,Del, Nathan,Jones,Pope
Subs : Ferguson,Keyring,Gerry,Miguel,Dods

Bollocks. A nice wee break in the Sun and the start of a new millennium and we still have to lose stupid goals near the end of the game to drop two points. Not that we weren't bad but yet again we failed to finish off an opposing side that were there to be taken.

With McQ out St. Sandy put McCluskey in at right-back whilst Dods took a slot on the bench on his return to action, alongside Eusebio on his return from Spaghetti Junction. Meanwhile to add to the entertainment of Saints fans who revelled in calling the small away support "Airdrie" all afternoon, we saw the return to McD of one John "Gobber" Davies.

The opening stages were what you'd expect of Saints after a mid-season break in front of their first home crowd for a couple of months. Yup we were crap with a total lack of marking from the defence, a non-existent midfield and a pair of strikers who were totally ineffective in chasing the long balls from defence. The only item of note was an early yellow for Goalden Graeme after his tackle was late on the Motherwell winger that wasn't Twaddle. Given the slippy conditions underfoot it was a trifle harsh and when the same winger walloped Blaster later on it was strange to see the ref fail to caution him.

With Saints under the cosh and relying on Danny Kicks to keep the ball out, it wasn't really surprising when Main was called into action. A long punch and a brilliant one-handed save from Twaddle showed that at least one Saints player was up for the game. Unfortunately the same can't be said for Mr John O'Neil. Now I know St. Sandy says he is willing to pick players even if they're unwilling to show loyalty to the club by signing a new deal but to be frank, Del was absolutely pish today - lazy, apathetic, sloppy and generally crap. Drop him now Sandy - there are plenty of other players who are willing to play for the club and will still be hear after July.

Saints gradually built up some good play as the game went on with Nathan everywhere and Pope showing some nice touches in central midfield. Chief saw the Flying Turd pull off a good save after quarter of an hour and the same Blob of Bigotry managed a similar one on the half hour mark when Nathan was through one-on-one although the Ginger Bomber could have finished better. The Buckfast Boyz were forced into an early change when Doesbugger was taken off with a neck (?) injury just after that after deflecting a Jones shot for a corner by getting his face in the way although there was a case for his hands apparently touching it first.

After the delay Nathan again forced the Blob of Bigotry into a cracking save from a header from Pope's cross. Saints were enjoying all the pressure now and on the stroke of half-time finally took the lead when a long ball found Pope free on the right. He got past his man and sent a low cross into the box where Goalden Graeme was waiting to tap home.

Second-half saw the winger that wasn't Twaddle replaced by the Balding Exec. It followed the same pattern as the first half with Saints enjoying the majority of pressure. Pope was looking like a class act and creating most of the moves. The Blob of Bigotry saved a couple of shots from Nathan and Jones came close with a header. Still it gave the Airdrie-Wannabes a chance to act like their idols and the shoves and nudges off the ball began to occur more frequently with Nathan coming off worst in a challenge after 60 minutes in which he seemed to take a knock on the back. He was eventually replaced by Eusebio who saw a volley blocked by the Motherwell defenders before Weir headed over.

By this time Saints were starting to become their usual panicky selves and the last 15 minutes saw us defend a lot more deeply with McCluskey and Weir caught out on occasion. Spencer had his usual antics in the box and got booked for diving whilst Goodman was lucky to escape a similar fate just afterwards.

Of course we were all starting to think of 3 points when it went wrong. With Saints defending the box, the boys failed to clear their lines properly and the ball fell to McMillan who sent an unstoppable drive past Main from all of 25 yards out. A cracking goal but we should have had the game well and truly wrapped up by then.

Overall it was a reasonable performance. We were unlucky to find a Flying Turd on form otherwise it would have been over by half-time. Defensively Danny was excellent as ever although McCluskey was caught out a few times at right-back. Midfield looked 100 times better when Miguel came on - Del was crap and doesn't look bothered any more. Pope was my MoM by a mile, creative play and for a while in the second-half there were some touches of sheer genius from him.

One thing though - if we are to have any hope of a Scottish Cup run this year we *MUST* take our chances and score more goals.

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