Well, the new season kicks off tomorrow. For those of you with Setanta you can view the game on TV. Don't have cable? They offer a broadband version for $12 / mo ; $120 / year and they will be carrying tomorrow's game. http://www.setanta.com/portal/systemcontent/broadband
First match of the year as well as the start of a new era for Saints. No more Lowe and all of the doom and gloom associated with him and his cohorts. With that said, here is the starting line up for Saints: Davis Pele-Claus-Baird-Bale Skacel-Wright-Belmadi-Viafara Rasiak-Fuller Subs: Dyer,Wright-Phillips,Surman,Ostlund,Poke (GK)
Bearly two minutes into the match and Saints have to make a substitution. Claus is off with some leg injury or possibly a head injury, but in comes Jesus for Claus. This is certainly bad news for Saints.
Howard with a quick shot that nearly caught Saints, but defence recovers and nothing is made of it. In general, Ostlund has been playing very well in place of Claus. Hopefully he can hang in there for the full 90 minutes against Derby's rather big centre forward.
Idiakez very nearly scores directly on his corner kick. Belmadi just clears the inswinger off of the line from the far post. Not good coverage by Saints so far.
Damn!!!! Derby 1 Saints 0. Johnson scores off the rebound from an excellent Davis save on the 34' minute. Saints not playing very well today. They are playing very lethargic, but with four debutants starting I guess that is to be expected.
Worse he got it in off his own rebound. Should've had a defender in his face. I sent ya an email with a link to watch the game.
Fuller's involved in a couple Saints chances for a goal early in the 2nd half. 53' Fuller's limping and Bradley Wright-Philips is coming on for him.
BAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!! The 17 year old with a wonderful free kick to score for Saints!!!!!!!!!!!! 61' <------ Derby 1 Saints 1
Jump down turn around, Pick a bale of cotton Bend down turn around, Pick a bale a day Neutral Oh lordy, pick a bale of cotton Oh lordy, pick a bale a day Neutral
Up Tipp you better be watching on the link I sent you BWP!!!!!!!!!!!! Lovely strike by the kid. 69' Derby 1 Saints 2
Davis with another great save on the restart from Idiakez. The match has really heated up with BWP hitting the post. Man let's hope we can keep up the lead.
DDDDAAAAMMMMMNNNNN!!! That f@#%ng Canuck ties up the match against the run of play in the 90' minute with four minutes in injury time. Derby 2 Saints 2
Derby 2 Saints 2 Saints get a point on the road, but should really be disappointed with not coming home with all three points after a last minute goal by Derby. With that said, a point is a point and now we play at home on Wednesday against Coventry. Hopefully three points will be had by Saints on the 9th. MOTM in my opinion was BWP. His pace and scoring abilities were what turned this match into the Saints favor for quite a while. Hopefully he will start up front against the Sky Blues on Wednesday. Skacel didn't do much, but considereing he has had very little training I am not surprised. Pele sounded like he did well, and the defence did pretty good considering Claus went down with an injury just a couiple of minutes into the match.
My ratings: Davis : 7 Baird : 7 Pele : 6 Bale : 6 -- Great goal of the FK but gave up possesion a bit more than I'd like. Claus : NA Belmadi : 7 Wright : 6 Viafara : 6 Skacel : 6 Rasiak : 6 Fuller : 6 Subs: BWP : 7 Ostlund : 8
According to Burley, Fuller is definitely out for Wednesday's match due to a pulled hamstring. Hopefully our new fitness/sports science regime can get him back to health quicker than under the old system.