Shoulda Been Millar Time

Tactical errors from Steve Lomas cost Saints dear at Fir Park as Motherwell edged our St Johnstone on a tricky pitch. Wells goals came courtesy of Henrik Ojamaa with a brace and Lasley with a fluke. Saints counters came from transfer tittle tattle men, Jody Morris and Fran Sandaza. Those who follow banned101saint on Twitter will know my thoughts on these players.

Saints went into the game with a massive doubt over Liam Craig, struggling all week with vomiting and diarrhoea. The goal scoring midfielder lost half a stone in weight yet still managed most of the game, half of which he played in an attacking midfield role. Jack Compton replaced him and won over the majority of the fans at the game. Quite why they rated Croft higher than Compton after the Hibs game is beyond my comprehension.

Arguably, the inclusion of Croft cost us the game. The man is lazy, unfit and indifferent to the cause of St Johnstone. It takes more than a nice touch to succeed in the game. There are a few reasons why clubs in England don’t want him. He reminds me of Collin Samuel, he’s now at Arbroath. These players just stumble through life expecting to make a living from talent alone. Very few can pull that trick off; Croft might be one of them, though it doesn’t look promising. Gotta say though, the boy has a very high level of natural talent.

The gulf in attitude between players like Croft and Samuel, compared with such as Midge and Compton is unfathomable. Midge himself was visibly angered at not getting any game time. Different sources have told me that he was told to expect 30 minutes and his warm up suggested as much. Of course the third goal changed the shape of the game considerably and the timing could not have been worse. That the goal was a fluke, a cruel deflection, only added to the sense of injustice.

Putting all that aside, it’s a measure of Steve Lomas that we went into the game, believing we’d take the fight to Stuart McCall’s men. The crushing disappointment felt when Calum Murray blew for full time showed how far we’ve come since November.

The game started in fine conditions, albeit parts of the pitch offered less grip than others. The opening exchanges were fairly evenly matched. The key talking point being that Omar Daley seemed to have less grip than any other player. How else to explain him falling down so easily and so often? Actually don’t answer that, Ando did it for you!

After ten minutes or so, the game settled down and Motherwell were enjoying the bulk of the play. They hadn’t looked overly threatening when in the twenty second minute we failed to clear our lines. The ball broke to Callum Davidson who spotted Lee Croft in acres of space. The experienced left back tried to find the fans favourite with a diagonal 50 yard pass. Unfortunately, he didn’t get enough on it and Motherwell hit us hard on the counter. The ball came to the young Estonian striker and he hit a super shot across Peter Enckleman, low into the keepers right hand side.

Lomas quickly joined Tommy and Alec on the touchline; he wasted little time in making a tactical switch. With Croft unwilling to put up a fight, he dropped Marcus Haber to left midfield and pushed Liam inside with an attacking remit. The move was in keeping with the character of Steve Lomas; unconventional and brilliant. We got back in the game and it was the a mixture of touch, vision and control that combined to get us one level terms. Great skill by Morris saw the ball come out wide to Croft; the Englander pinged a lovely ball across and Jody finished with great aplomb.

With Daley continuing to cheat and Fran Sandaza having a running, off and on the ball niggle with Clancy it’s fair to say that Saints fans were happy enough to go in level. This despite Liam hitting the woodwork and a smart stop by Randolph from a Fran freekick on the edge of the area.

As the players went down the tunnel, Fran Sandaza was giving Calum Murray a hard time. Given that he had been freshly booked, it’s disappointing that our senior players didn’t step in to avoid a him soaring to the top of the referees hit list. Perhaps it would be wise for Lomas to ask Callum to be last man off and make sure none of our players talk themselves into yellow cards during the interval. As it was, someone obviously had words with Fran at half time and his energies were fully focussed on the game, not on Clancy.

As ever with Steve Lomas, the team were fired up from the half time team talk and we set about the systematic destruction of Motherwell. Stuart McCall could only watch in horror as a once tight game swung completely to Saints dominance. We pushed and pressed, harried and hurried. Haber was on the right of midfield and making decent runs, Morris and Muzz were coping in midfield, Crofty, now in front of Callum started to look interested and Craig run his drained body to the limit in an effort to be the link between Fran and midfield. It worked a treat and in the away stand we could sense another brilliant Lomas victory. Then it crashed down.

A smart counter attack saw the Estonian superkid running at skipper Morris. The Englishman looked like Bambi on ice and Henrik had plenty of time to pick a spot. That said it was an excellent finish from the Estonian who also lost traction as he turned the Saints skipper. In fairness it was an excellent goal on many levels. The touch to and from Daly proved vital.

Even at 2-1 we were still optimistic, we were playing great football and Sandaza looked a real handful; Craig and Croft both showing terrific football brains to create oppurchancities for the Toledo Talisman. Then the Saints fans had their hopes and dreams shattered by yet more terrible luck. Jody Morris was once again the unlucky assailant. With Keith Lasley running forward and running out of options he decided to try a GeeMann special and hit a hopeless and hopeful shot from distance. Incredibly, the shot nicked off Morris dived right and turned left wickedly, deceiving Big Pete in the process.

Three goals for and one against was a perverse and twisted reflection of the game to that point. We always rally and with Stevie Lomas we now making bold and attacking subbies. The incredible Jackie Compton came on and lit up the grey Lanarkshire surroundings. His runs and crosses are simply wondrous to behold. We have to hope that he recovers to play against Hearts because he’ll cause chaos in the right back area and Liam has proved that he can play in a free-role alongside Fran Sandaza.

We did pull a goal back from a penalty and we pushed hard before and after, sadly to no avail. It was crushing to leave the ground without a point. Lomas’ initial interview with BBC sounded like sour grapes but in fact he gave an accurate reflection of the game. They got lucky with two goals whilst we hit the post and scored one exceptional goal. As I say, it’s a measure of how far we’ve come. That’s thanks to the vision of our board, including Geoff, who retained Lomas’ contact details and approached him with the right offer at the right time.

Despite a few issues, which Lomas will handle, we have a great squad and a great buzz. We need to ensure that Callum Davidson is retained. Every club needs a professional player that commands respect and Cal is one such player. He is involved with training the 19s on a regular basis and is very obviously a man that could go on to take over from Lomas when the legend moves back to England.

That’s all in the future; the current is Hearts on Sunday. We have a great chance tomorrow, we’ll need to be at our best; fans, players and management. We can break Hearts and make dreams come true. Let’s play our part and redress the Motherwell misfortune. Bring it.....