Saints have no answer to slick Gowdie
OBAN Saints’ dismal league form continued at Glasgow Club Donald Dewar in Drumchapel last Saturday where they slumped to an 8-0 defeat against Scottish Amateur Football League Premier Division title contenders Goldenhill.
On their previous visit to Drumchapel in the penultimate fixture of last season, Saints edged out Goldenhill by the odd score in a five-goal thriller to complete a home and away league double.
However, with only four survivors from that evening in their ranks, a perfect storm of a ravaged Saints and a rampant Gowdie combined to send Saints reeling to their worst ever Premier Division defeat.
Manager Alex Craik was still sunning himself on foreign shores so team affairs were once again left in the hands of assistant manager Donald Campbell. Donald had Matthew Kelly, Craig MacEwan and David Smith available after missing the previous week’s West of Scotland Cup win at Braehead. However, Paul Carmichael, Daniel Croarkin, Willie Gemmell and Keith Millar all dropped out for various reasons.
The morning rain at Garscadden Road gave way to a dry but overcast afternoon which made for good playing conditions on an excellent 3G surface.
Saints kicked off attacking the pavilion end and held their own in a quiet opening five-minute spell. The home side, with a 100 per cent record from their 10 competitive fixtures, including 63 goals, began to gain the upper hand in the vital midfield area and soon had Saints pinned back in their own half.
Already beginning to look like a long afternoon, Saints required maximum concentration to keep pace with their livewire opponents. Unfortunately, that was in short supply as lapses from the visitors contributed greatly to the home side’s domination.
From a 10th minute throw-in on the left, Jamie Grimes was given acres of room to stride forward from central defence and send a 25-yard shot wide of the left-hand post of Graham ‘Sugar’ Douglas in the Saints goal.
Sixty seconds later it was striker Ryan McKeever with a shot from a similar position which Graham Douglas turned behind for a corner kick. McKeever’s strike partner, James Gallagher, rolled the corner kick from the right to the corner of the 18-yard box for central defender Steven Dock, whose crisply struck shot smacked the face of Sugar’s left-hand post before being thumped clear by David McPhee
Saints ignored the earlier set-piece warning and allowed James Gallagher to repeat his corner kick routine from the right and pick out Martin Lawlor’s run to the edge of the box. The Gowdie central midfielder had time and space to measure a curling effort just inside the far post to give the hosts a deserved 18th-minute lead.
Unbelievably, Saints fell for the same routine 60 seconds later, this time on the opposite flank from where Lawlor curled a cross onto the head of Ryan McKeever on the six-yard line who doubled the home advantage.
At the other end, Shaun MacIver was inches away from getting on the end of a Craig MacMillan ball from the halfway line before Craig MacEwan drew a save from Scott Rennie dropping to his right to make a comfortable stop.
As Saints enjoyed their best spell, Craig MacEwan fired a second attempt on goal in the 35th minute which curled wide of Scott Rennie’s righthand post. From the goal kick, Goldenhill raced up the left wing from where Kevin Kane fired a ball along the six-yard line which the unmarked James Gallagher tucked away for an all too easy third for the hosts.
Three minutes later Saints were ripped apart again with James Gallagher racing through the inside right channel and firing across Graham Douglas and into the bottom corner for a fourth home goal.
Saints steadied the ship but failed to negotiate the closing seven minutes entirely unscathed as Shaun MacIver pulled up with a groin strain.
New signing Mark Robertson was given the nod to replace MacIver with the change bringing about a tactical reshuffle to a 3-5-2 formation.
Saints continued their better showing into the seventh minute of the second half but had their good work undone by another example of poor decision-making in the middle of the park. Fraser MacFarlane tried to beat Kevin Kane 10 yards inside the Saints half instead of looking for a more straightforward layoff. Kane won the battle and sent James Gallagher racing through the middle to fire a low shot into the bottom corner past Sugar’s right hand.
Not content with a hat-trick, Gallagher notched a fourth 60 seconds later, making a good near-post run to guide a Jonathon Dyer cross from the right past a helpless Graham Douglas.
In the 69th minute, Steven MacLeod raced out to try to prevent another Goldenhill short corner routine. However, this just left Saints short in the middle when the cross eventually came in and Damon Gray pulled off to the corner of the six-yard box and cushioned a volley past Graham Douglas for a seventh goal.
Already struggling with an ankle injury, Craig Campbell felt the full weight of Kevin Maxwell on his left instep in the 75th minute and was unable to continue.
Campbell’s misfortune gave new signing Andrew Moore a chance to make his Saints debut which he might reasonably have hoped would come in happier circumstances.
David McPhee’s outstretched right boot took the ball off Kevin Maxwell’s forehead as the Goldenhill substitute looked set to nod the ball home from two yards after Reace Syed had headed a deep Ian Stevenson cross back into the danger area.
The misery was complete for Saints in the 82nd minute when Graham Douglas palmed a speculative Jamie Grimes strike into the path of Ian Stevenson who needed no second invitation to slot the ball into the net and round off the scoring at eight.
Despite an extremely quiet afternoon, Gowdie keeper Scott Rennie maintained his concentration to the end making a good reaction save to deny Craig MacEwan a late consolation goal.
Referee John McNab, who had a good game, brought a miserable afternoon for Saints to an end consigning Saints to a fourth defeat in five Premier Division games.
Up next for Saints is a home match against old rivals Inverclyde which, even at this early stage of the season, is already looking like a must-win fixture for Alex Craik’s men.
The game will take place at Glencruitten with a 2pm kickoff.
The referee in charge is Jimmy Litster.
Saints secretary David Buchanan said: ‘This was a steep learning curve for a lot of our players. Goldenhill were excellent today, they defended well and looked dangerous with every attack.
‘We need to get a settled team on the park, we’re having to change the line-up every week with players not being available.
‘We’ve got a big Scottish Cup tie against Falkirk coming up a week on Saturday so we need to get things sorted out and a good performance against Inverclyde this weekend is essential. Hopefully, we’ll have a few of our more experienced players back for Saturday.’