Another game another formation for St Johns.

Manager Akin reached page five of his introduction to tactics book and plumped for the 5-3-2 formation, in a bid to try to stop the St Johns Achilles heel of conceding the early goal. The five man barricade was breached within 10 minutes! To be fair though no amount of pre-planning or tactical knowledge can stop the St Johns defence current compulsion to give goals cheap away.

A rather hopeful through ball by ISS, a good shout by the St Johns keeper, yet the new defender Tony Gear felt the need to intervene making a hash of the clearance sending the ball skywards and goal wards, with the speedy number 9 beating the unspeedy backtracking defender/winger/midfielder John Werbinski to the descending ball. An easy 1-0.

Used to these early set-backs, St Johns took to the plastic pitch with gusto and played much of the better football in the first half carving out chance after chance. St John’s best chance came directly after ISS had scored their first. Matt Ellis for the St’s overlapped beautifully and received a ball in the ISS box from Hegarty. Seeing the whites of the ISS keepers eyes Ellis somehow managed to spoon what seemed a certain goal over the bar with his right foot when a first time lefty was on the cards. St John’s came close again with a Ryan Orton curling effort, after a neat body fat swerve gave him space. Paul Huggins also came close for the St’s with a brave ankle high diving header after some good build up play.

Yet for all their good chances and passing play St Johns still came to the half time whistle on the wrong end of a 3-0 scoreline. Déjà vu anyone?

To St Johns credit they came out for the 2nd half still feeling there was something to be had from the game. St Johns piled on the pressure winning a succession of corners. Craig West for the St’s swinging them in towards the ISS keeper caused all sort of problems, John Werbinski for the St’s came close with a looping 18 yard header from a weak defensive ISS clearance. From yet another St Johns corner the cleared ball was picked up by Werbinski on the left who drew a foul and took the quickly taken free kick which found the head of Hegarty who showed strength and desire to get to the ball first and put the Saints back in the game. 3-1.

On a high and pressing forward, yet another mix-up in defence allowed ISS to regain their three goal advantage. The wind never left the St Johns sails as they continued to dominate the game, with Hegarty converting a Werbinski cross. St Johns made it 5-3 with a slick interchange of passes between St’s substitute Mikey Holmes threading through a delicious through ball which Craig West buried unerringly into the far corner to make the score 5-3.

ISS were visibly clinging on to the game and arguing with each other & the ref. Especially when Hegarty went down in the box after an ISS sandwich and the ref showed no hesitation in awarding a penalty, even though contact looked minimal! Hegarty on a hat-trick made no mistake and dispatched the ball with ease to make it 5-4.

Unfortunately for the Saints the clock was against them in their quest for the 5th goal. With only a minute to go ISS started to find the corner flags and St Johns were denied the equalising goal for which their performance warranted.

After their poor showing against Bison the week before, St Johns once again found their heart and played once again for each other. And, Brendan Hegarty is on Doctors orders to go out and get pissed every Friday night if these are the resulting performances!

By Ryan Orton