Rolly Leave Saints Feeling Ruff

Saints Striker Eddie Swift

With their passage to the Jimmy Marshall Trophy Final safely secured Saints returned to league action on Saturday with a tricky away match at Glagow Green against Finnart. Saints, without the injured duo of Donald Campbell and Allan Miller, and with Eddie Swift at a wedding, were pleased to welcome back to the squad Sommin and Sonin Kurishita. Finnart's home form belies their lowly league position and Saints can be reasonably satisfied with their 1 - 0 victory courtesy of a first half Ross Maitland strike.

The recent heavy rain forced a switch of venue for Sunday's home match with Rolls Royce East Kilbride. With the grass park at Glencruitten unplayable the match went ahead on the 3G pitch at Oban High School.

Rolly

Rolls Royce, or the Rolly as they like to be known, arrived early for the match and their management team of Den and Angie Watts had some time to take in the delights of top Oban hostelry "The Lochavullin".

Leaving Angie under strict instructions to stay off the gin, Den proceeded to the High School to put his charges through their pre-match warm-up routine. The warm up complete, Den was concerned there was no sign of Angie and asked the referee to delay kick off until she arrived.

Saints meantime had their own absentee problems to address as Saturday's goal hero Ross Maitland had failed to return from Glasgow in time for kick off. It later emerged that Ross, currently in training to run the West Highland Way, had gone to inspect the route and become distracted by some of the sites.

Running The West Highland Way

Eventually a "tired and emotional" Angie arrived and match got underway The match, played in attrocious weather conditions, was dominated by Saints but despite having the vast majority of possession they were unable to create much in the way of chances. On the few occassions that Saints did manage to penetrate the Rolly rearguard they were thwarted by some questionable refereeing decisions much to the displeasure of all in the Saints camp.

Early in the second half Saints Manager Iain Jackson decided on a change of formation withdrawing a midfielder and introducing striker Asen Gaydardzhiev to the forawrd line.

 Asen, who lists his sporting heroes as compatriot and footballing legend Hristo Stoichkov and Olympic diving champion Tom Daley, had an early opportunity to open the scoring. When through on goal with the chance to emulate his hero Asen chose the wrong one and, instead of shooting for goal, dived head long in the penalty area.

The dive fooled nobody, least of all the referee. Saints continued to press and got their reward when Asen flicked on a Willie Gemmell throw-in and Keith Millar netted with a diving header at the back post. As the Saints players and staff celebrated wildly the Rolly players surrounded the referee complaining that the Saints captain had been off-side. On the sidelines Den and Angie were incandescent with rage and continued their complaints for several minutes before the referee's patience finally snapped and Angie was ordered from the touchline. Clearly upset, Angie seized this opportunity to return to the Lochavullin for one last dance with local dance sensation James Bowie.

The match resumed but not before Den had delivered a chilling warning for the referee to "mind his back". Clearly shaken by this threat, and mindful of Den's East End Gangland connections, the referee proceeded to give every decision in the Rolly's favour.

"You had better mind your back referee!"

With the Saints bench screaming for the full time whistle, in the 94th minute the referee finally seized his opportunity to appease Den by awarding the visitors the softest of penalties for an innocuous Alex Craik challenge in the box. The penalty was smartly dispatched giving Saints goalkeeper Daniel Cassells no chance. Incredibly play continued for another five minutes but neither team could manage an effort on goal. The match ended all square with Saints dropping two precious points to the Rolly for the second time this season.

With the dust finally settled news emerged this morning that a sozzled Angie had agreed to buy the Lochavullin.

"What do you mean you can't remember? I've got a letter here from Kenny Evans accepting your offer!"

 



Den was unavailable for comment.

Angie, Rolly and the Saints were all said to be feeling ruff.

#monthesaints