UEFA Cup 3rd Qualifying Round 2nd Leg
UEFA Cup 3rd Qualifying Round 2nd Leg
Nervous Saints 2 Vaasa 0 (+ 6 fans)
Team :
Main,McQ,Bollan,Weir,Dods,Dasovic,Kane,O'Neil,Nathan,Keyring, McMahon
Subs :
Ferguson,McBride,Griffin,McCluskey,Miguel,Grant,O'Halloran
Before beginning this report it's perhaps time to pay tribute to the OAP Senile Wegie journalist Shuggy Keevins. It seems to me that every time he gets his verbal vomit published that Saints just come right back at him. Well let's just hope that the sight of the long queues outside all the stands 45 minutes before the kick-off tonight sticks in his throat. Around 9,500 fans and apart from the brave dozen or so VPS boys (sorry but we still didn't hear you sing) every one was a dedicated Saintee. And boy was it worth it.
St.
Sandy stuck by the same side again and with the Messiah forced to sit out
this time, the Legend got on to the bench. VPS had Essandoh up front with
Auntie Paula and new guy Bjorn Stringthing in goal. With Saints playing
4-4-2 it was pressure from the start as we went in search of the goals to
kill the tie off.
Early attacks saw Saints unlucky to get a penalty as McQ was bundled to the ground. A series of corners came to nothing as did the free kicks on the edge of the box with either the Finns getting a free kick for an infringement on StringThing (possibly a major slagging of his dodgy haircut), or as in most cases Keyring showed a total loss of form with some crap kicks.
Still as the game went on Saints never looked in any real trouble. Kane and Dassa in midfield looked confident enough and whilst Dods had some problems dealing with Essandohs height, the rest of the defence looked fairly solid. Up front the ever-improving Karaoke King started to beat guys on the wing whilst Nat King Goals was everywhere.
Unfortunately the goal still wouldn't come. A few half chances came up in the box but credit to the Finns they defended well. Del had a shot go just wide and Kane and Nathan both came close. At the other end the Finns best chances came from Saints mistakes - poor clearances and the usual Main cock-ups meant we were fairly lucky to go in at the break with the game still goalless.
Second-half started evenly enough though VPS looked to be more confident coming forward and the game began to open up a bit more. They suffered a setback when Stringthing had to go off injured to be replaced by a Dolph clone, after a major stramash in the penalty box saw Saints miss half a dozen glorious chances and leave bodies lying everywhere.
As the game wore on the nerves in the crowd began to show and several times the Saints defence was caught napping (Blaster and Weir being the main examples), with Main forced to look sharp on a couple of occasions and make a cracking save from an Essandoh long-range shot. Eventually St. Sandy put on the Legend for the crap Keyring. Straight away the Rod made a difference up front using his ball holding abilities to hold play up for the midfield to get forward. Nathan was set up by Roddy and broke into the box only to see his shot well save by Dolph mk2.
That
was it for him as looking rather dischuffed he was replaced by Miguel.
With Gerry on the right and Del on the left Legend and Miguel began to
combine to make several chances in the box but still couldn't get the ball
away. At the other end we had to look sharp as VPS on the break were
dangerous. In fact one of the best moves of the game was only broken up
when the Karaoke King sprinted the length of the park to make a saving
tackle on the Finnish attacker.
Still we had the pressure and with only 3-4 minutes to go (plus the inevitable 10 minutes injury time), a through ball saw Miguel outpace the defence and slot the ball under the advancing keeper to send the crowd mental. And it didn't stop there when only a few minutes later, Del on the left sent a square ball across the pitch as Saints broke up field. Miguel dummied it to allow the Karaoke King to play it past the defender for Eusebio to run on to then take his time rounding the keeper before slotting the ball home to make it 2-0 and put the tie beyond Vaasa.
End
of the game was greeted with more relief than anything else. It wasn't the
best performance of the season but players like Nathan and Gerry are
improving all the time and the defence finally looks a bit more solid.
Things are definitely looking up. A word too for the VPS players - the
game was one of the cleanest I've seen in a long time and it was helped by
the Spanish ref who let play flow as much as possible. And not a yellow
card in sight - are you listening Freeland?
Now - bring on the world !!!!