Scottish Cup 3rd Round - 30/01/2000
Scottish Cup 3rd Round - 30/01/2000 Saints 0 TFOD 2
Team :
Main,Dods,Bollan,Weir,Danny,Kane,Chief,Del,Nathan Jones,Pope
Subs : Miguel,Keyring,McCluskey
Oh well same old story. For the following report I might as well have just repeated the report from countless previous cup and league defeats against that mob of bigoted Wegies (Footie top of the night had "July" and "12" on it - who's he?). Even better was the sight of Sean Connery in the away directors box - did he sing "Rule Britannia" as well?
On the pitch it was a pissy wet, windy and shite night. And that was before the game. Nathan managed to pass a fitness test, but McQ missed out with Forrest Gump coming into the right-back slot (when are we going to play 3 across the back?).
The opening minutes were fairly even, but with the wind at their backs Saints failed to take advantage of long-range shots. Pope played a lovely through ball after 5 minutes but Goalden Graeme was unable to connect (story of his whole match really).
After a goalless first 10 minutes the bigots began to realise it wouldn't be a walkover and resorted to their traditional match-winning tactics. Luckily Baldy Rowbotham was in charge and Moores dive in the box failed to impress, although why he didn't book the thug as well remains a mystery.
Saints came close to taking the lead 3 minutes later. Some good build-up play saw Goalden get the ball free on the left. He laid it in to the Ginger Bomber in the box who turned, beat a defender and sent a curling shot which rebounded off the post. That was it really for Saints. Jones failed to win much in the air and despite some good midfield play with Kane, Del and Chief all playing well (Pope had an off-night), it seemed that Saints were unwilling to try and put any sort of pressure on TFOD's defence.
TFOD rarely troubled us though - Main had one save to make and even when TFOD got past him and hit the post the offside rule prevented any score. That was until 5 minutes before half-time when Saints defended deeply again and standing off the Hun New Romantic (minus the Tubeway Army), Spuman had a low drive from 20+ yards which beat Main. Having said that Spuman should never have been on the park after some nasty elbowing against Chief early on (and even when Baldy warned him about it he repeated the offence).
Second-half saw Saints start fairly brightly with a couple of chances although the attentions of Craporuso and Thuggy Moore meant that there was little opportunity for flowing play. At the other end Main was called into action with a brilliant save from the Hun Hun.
The hour mark saw Miguel come on but for some strange reason he replaced Nathan rather than the totally useless Jones. Fair enough if Nathan was suffering from last week's injury but from what I saw tonight the fans' patience is starting to run out on Goalden - he failed to head the ball tonight and looked far, far too slow. Five minutes later and the game was all but over with the Italian Dutchman scoring a similar goal to the first to make it 2-0.
Cue for the fight to go out of Saints. St. Sandy replaced Pope with Keyring and after the Bread Queuer handled we should have had a penalty but to be honest even when we did get chances in front of goal towards the end of the game we never looked like taking them - Del, Miguel and Chief all had half-hearted shots go wide. At the other end Main kept us in it with saves from the Hun Hun and a miracle stop from a point-blank Durex header. Easily man of the match and Scotland's No. 1.
Overall we didn't play too badly - defensively we were fairly sound with all of the back four playing well (Danny being immense as always). Midfield saw Pope posted missing but the other three especially Kane and Del had good games (although the presence of the Sky cameras may have had some effect on Del's match). Up front Nathan was OK but Jones was crap. More worrying though was the lack of service or decent supply from the midfield to the forwards. Even in the last five minutes we saw Miguel having to come back to his own 18-yard line to get the ball - something which should never be required.
One other worrying aspect is that the last 3 goals we've conceded have been long-range efforts. Maybe it's time to close down the opposition a bit quicker Sandy. Finally a word for the ref - first time in donkeys that we've had Rowbotham and despite the penalty claim and some dodgy offsides he was easily the best ref we've had this season.
It's hard to be depressed tonight - to be honest I never expected us to win. Still, at least we can concentrate on the league now.....
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