I’m not going into the detail of the Ibrox disaster. Del picked his best team of the year and the players (again) let him down.
Unfortunately, I no longer have a source of quotes from the dressing room, so I don’t know how the pre-match chat was focussed but the players played the game in a way that was never gonna work in the shape picked by Del. Shame, because he arguably picked a team that could have snuck a point.
The score-line was perfectly fair, but please don’t fooled into thinking that Rangers played – they didn’t, nor did they have too. The first goal was blatantly handled though I’m sure the referee had no idea who it had come off so couldn’t really award us the free kick. In any event, they were hungrier than us, so got to the ball first. Initially I questioned Enckleman, but having watched the replay he was never gonna make the stop.
Wylde is a player well known to St Johnstone and following his corner; the referee should have blown the final whistle. Player of the year, Steven Anderson, stood and gaped as the under-rated and overly maligned Kyle Lafferty nodded home from close range....
Between the goals, Duberry tried to cheat to win a free kick having made a hash of shepherding a ball out for a goal kick. He mis-judged the pace of the ball and when it looked like he was gonna concede a corner he took his regular dive, grabbing the ball with both hands. As he dived, he dinged his groin and probably put an end to his involvement in games held in March.
His fellow boxing fan, Mr Graham Gartland, got himself stripped and ready for action when great leader McInnes elected to park him up in favour of Alan Maybury. I’ve ranted about this before but any substitution which sees three positions occupied by new bodies is a gross error. Danny had a new partner, Cup Tie had two strangers on either side, as did Ando himself. Stoooppppid Derek!
Anyway, against the Gers we needed a rugged presence at the back to rattle a lightweight front line. Ando and Cup Tie are cute and effective but none of them are bruisers.
Anyway, a game which started with a wimper simply dragged to the death with little entertainment worth the mentioning. A snapshot (fired more by temper than tendons and ligaments) from Jody looked to be wide of Shagger’s sticks whilst Cleve had a decent effort which also went wide; albeit rubbing the metal work on it’s way past.
The Papac goal gets better every time you see it whilst the fourth is one of these things. Some of the boys are slating Ando’s clearance but at 3-0 down there’s no point risking the keepers health by swinging a right peg at full pelt.
Speaking of keepers and risk, Enckleman’s judgement was seriously flawed when he brought down the wee nyaff. It was a penalty and he should have been off. A ban for him and we’re really in trouble. It’s well known that I don’t rate him, but credit where it’s due; some of his saves were really top drawer on Sunday.
Despite his idiotic subbies, which saw Invincible come on for Cleve and Novikovas replace the best forward at the club, I have some sympathy for Del. If the players had went for the jugular, his team selection and shape wasn’t that bad. Of course I can niggle that Cads or Reynolds should have started right wing, but that team wouldn’t have achieved a result either. The players didn’t believe and didn’t play to win. The finger of blame falls primarily on them.
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The Under 19s had a classic game against Hibs today at Tulloch Park. The first league game was a 4-0 victory for the Edinburgh Road club, though Saints regained some pride in a closed doors game at Newburgh in Autumn. Our team that day had three trialists, but today’s team was along familiar lines....sort of.
With the Stevies now on permanent first team duties, Liam Caddis was the only star in the team so Alec took the crazy decision to play him upfront with Kano who had another brilliant game. Scotty Gray was given run on the right with Jack on the left. Ricky “Rocket” McIntosh was partnered with Hutch in the centre. The backline saw Sully at right back, Vinnie and Johnny Lindsay (back from Dumbarton) in the middle and Aiden at left back. Zander was in excellent form in goal.
Hibs edged the first half, particularly a 15 minute spell where Vinnie did a Dinky - got in a muddle and blamed everyone around him! Saint were the better team in the second half and were denied a stonewall penalty when Kano (who’d went down far too easily all day) was properly bundled to the deck in front of Roddy Grant, Colin Calderwood, Derek McInnes, Tony Docherty, Alistair Stevenson and plethora of other fine football folk. It was an awful decision by a team of officials who’d had a good game until that point.
Kano grew in confidence throughout the second half and can feel aggrieved not to get my MOM. Thing is, Zander has to get the award. Brilliant handling, great decision making and super kicking all day long.
A draw was possible the right result but we should have had that penalty......
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Saints fans have again surpassed themselves. With the fairly obvious news that we’ve sold our allocation for Brechin, our less intelligent forumers are getting hot under the collar. On 21 February, the official website quite clearly stated: “Season Ticket holders unable to get to the stadium can apply by post, submitting a cheque for the appropriate amount made payable to St Johnstone FC, a stamped address envelope and voucher 24 and these applications must be with the club by Saturday 26th February.” I know that very few folk took up the offer. Indeed so few took up the offer that all these applications were processed before the ticket office opened for business on Monday!
Most reasonable folk accept that Season Ticket holders have every right to two tickets given:
a) The financial commitment given to the club
b) The inconvenience suffered by Season Ticket holders this year
In the circumstances, there was never gonna be enough tickets and fans without Season Tickets will simply have to swallow the pill of disappointment in the certain knowledge that we never sell out at Hampden!
Season Ticket holders that didn’t get tickets have no excuse. All they had to do was post a voucher and a cheque to the club.
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