Another weekend and St Johns third cup game at home in a row.

St Johns were much better prepared for this cup match compared to the previous two. St Johns warmed up properly and had a better turnout than of late although St Johns rebel Paul Martin once again failed to show citing a spurious text to Secretary / player Brendan Hegarty.

St Johns had probably been a bit gung ho in previous matches which contributed to their awful, slow starts. St Johns welcomed back Dave Michael from a month’s long absence & normal left back Andy Bell slotted in at left sided centre half. Manager Odusanya had to yet again jiggle the player positions due to injuries & a differing turnout each week. With so many players coming in and out of the St Johns team there is no consistency in the starting line up & this is not helping the team one iota.

St John’s for once got off to a better start than usual i.e. they did not go two goals down in the first ten minutes. Crocked manager Akin-Paul Odusanya watching from the sidelines with fellow injuree Sabatino Ventre opted to go back to the trusty 4-5-1 formation that had seen St Johns destroy Ealing Assyrians 0-4 in their opening game.

To be fair to both sides this was far from a classic with little in the way of thrills & spills. Both sides rarely kept the ball for more than two or three phases with Bison in particular closing down anything that moved with vim. St John’s came close after an excellent defense splitting pass by St Johns Ryan Orton that put Hegarty through on goal which Hegarty just managed to scuff wide with the keeper narrowing the angle.

St Johns for once went ahead after a beautiful long downfield pass by stand in centre half Andy Bell. The tall Bison centre back ‘tall Paul’ fatally misjudged his clearing header which allowed St Johns right winger John Werbinski to lash in an unstoppable dipping shot from distance. (How he keeps reminding us)

The lead was not to last for long though. With around ten minutes to go until half time A Bison player hit a cross cum pass into St Johns eighteen yard box which was not cut out by 50p head (Andy Bell). The ball broke kindly to the Bison right winger who advanced and lashed in a low, swerving shot into the bottom corner off the post, 1-1.

Half time came with crocked St Johns keeper Sabatino extolling the virtues of how to play 4-5-1 properly (for John Werbinski’s benefit) only for manager Odusanya to change the formation to 4-4-2 with Paul Huggins reverting to centre forward alongside Nick Tilbury. (That one got lost in translation.) No offence to Bison but compared to the opposition St Johns had faced in the cups to date Bison were not up there with them in terms of ability or skill. In an uneventful & drab game so far St Johns needed a creative spark from somewhere.

The second half change to 4-4-2 was not reaping the intended rewards as St Johns kept pumping long aimless balls towards the 6’ 5 Bison centre half who gobbled these up. In fact compared to previous matches this game was devoid of any really good attacking play by St John’s. At least in previous games St John’s had created chances (but failed to take them). Bison had a few good chances to score, more so than St John’s which saw several dangerous balls put across the St John’s box but no Bison player able to make the final contact when it seemed easier to score. Brendan Hegarty for St John’s also had a dipping header that was going in the top corner tipped away by the Bison keeper off a corner.

Bison took the lead with an expert free kick mid way through the second half after (50p head) Andy Bell was unfairly penalised for using a bit of muscle when the Bison forward was backing into him. The wall lined up and the St Johns keeper Adrian Priest positioned himself well but the Bison player curled a beauty into the left side of the St Johns net. This free-kick also marked a watershed in the game as pretty much every decision by the ref thereafter went against St Johns. The remainder of the second half was pretty drab as St Johns failed to create any noteworthy chances. Manager Odusanya brought off forward Nick Tilbury (for Gary Regan) & midfielder Ryan Orton (for Jon Flint) to try and shake a bit of life into this match. In truth this did little to change things as the quality of St Johns play did not markedly improve. The St Johns forwards were simply not getting any service and Bison were getting stronger as the match wore on. Ralph Pirie-Lewis for St John’s got his body in the way of one goal bound shot that prevented a certain goal which was a highlight but most of the these were happening in defense & not attack. Captain Dave Michael was performing heroics at the back & despite threatening to seize up at any moment kept things together at the back for St Johns.

This match ended with perhaps St Johns most lacklustre game of the season so far. St Johns meet Bison again in two weeks time but this time in the league. St Johns will hopefully have a few more of their injured players back & more importantly will have the trickery of Mikie Dermott & the energy & goals of Mark Blackburn which are sorely needed.

Match report by Akin-Paul Odusanya