Ash Trees 1 Saints 1

[Swifty]

Midtable game, midtable fare. An abject match.

 

We seemed to start brightly but lost our way badly and, either side of half time, we went about 25 minutes without a shot, and never tested their keeper fully in the match. It was frustrating to watch us struggle against an average Saints team whose keeper time-wasted from very early on (the ref gave up waiting for one particular goal kick and blew the half time whistle) and whose number 3 was a joke, manhandling our attackers all game and stopping them from turning, yet the ref didn't bother penalising him once.

 

After Saints scored with their first effort of any note, a well taken shot by McLeish in the 23rd, we needed a better performance after the break and at least we got it. I was hoping we'd use the wings more, as Joe put in a good shift on the flank in the first half and Sammy in the second. Our equaliser was a beauty, lovely work by Palla and a good, hard, low shot by Sammy in the 71st. We could have gone on to win, but Saints missed a couple of gilt-edged chances themselves and Macca made the only save of note in the game, brilliantly tipping away Atkins' effort high to his right.

 

Bairoh had another fine game, backed up by Russ and Alex in particular but, while there was enough effort on display, there were a few average performances today and a couple of well below par ones as well. As well as being light on numbers (only four subs), we lacked a cutting edge up front - by the way, any more news on 'exciting forward' Lee Scott?