St Johnstone 0 Hibernian 3

September 30th 2000
Scottish Premier League
Attendance:

Scorers:
Hibernian: Sauzee, Zitelli, Latapy.

This is a copy of a report of the game as it appeared in the Scotland on Sunday on Sunday 1st October 2000

Sauzee glow to Hibs

This is surely about as bad as things can get for St Johnstone. They were given a cuffing by Hibs, who took advantage of having an extra man for most of this match and squeezed every last drop of spirit out of their hosts. Outside Glasgow, Hibs are capable of playing bouyant, almost billowing football, and they came away from McDiarmid Park like peacocks in full plummage.

Franck Sauzee, their ancient Frenchman, was a wonder to behold. Sauzee has seen everything in football, having played for France and won just about every bauble going, yet his appetite for the glorious game, even in the hills of Perthshire, seemed startling. In the 12th minute of this match he bashed home a glorious free-kick and then ran the length of the field leaping like a lamb to greet the Hibs support. The likeable Sauzee was proof yesterday that all great footballers have egos which enhance their game - and his is still needing fed. He has been a sumptuous signing by Alex McLeish.

St Johnstone also had an ego in their ranks. Their goalkeeper, Alan Main, is occasionally brilliant and occasionally blundering at his craft, but when on form is always prone to gesturing to the audience. Yesterday, Main pulled off a string of sterling saves for St Johnstone, but couldn’t help himself, despite the tanking his team were taking, from hamming it up before anyone who might be watching.

Sandy Clark has achieved much in two years in Perth but watching this match you sensed the shocking toughness of his task. Jim Weir’s red card in the 12th minute hardly helped, but even before then, and certainly after it, St Johnstone were lacking wit. In the second half they did bravely forage upfield to hoist a few cracks as Nicky Colgan but a memory of this game was of Nick Dasovic and Paul Kane toiling in midfield in a state of confused exhaustion.

Too much of this was so dire from St Johnstone’s perspective that it was impossible to make judgments about some of their brighter hopes. Keigan Parker is still only 18 and has only made 14 starting appearances for the club. He may be blessed with a light frame and a whippet-like stealth but these were quickly made irrelevant here as St Johnstone chased Hibs’ shadows. Following Weir’s red card, poor Parker was relegated to chasing up and down his own flank, mainly in the role of a wing-back. His erstwhile striking partner, Graeme Jones, meanwhile, kept trying to trap the ball, occasionally watching it biff off his boot and end in the stand.

Poor Clark returned from watching Euro 2000 with no end of exciting homilies about how he was going to transform St Johnstone’s drab football. On the evidence of this misshapen game, and Clark’s season so far, it is proving a stiffer challenge than he imagined. In the summer Clark did sign one wide man, Tommy Lovenkrands, but he was stuck on the bench here. All the evidence suggests things are returning at McDiarmid Park to the stuffy, dogged stuff which is the requirement of such a financially-tight club.

You certainly need better than the wretched fate which afflicted St Johnstone yesterday to arouse the sombre Perth public and get them yelping over their football. The problem for Clark, though, seems to be one that Albert Einstien would struggle to solve. Clark’s players, out of necessity, are limited in craft and technique. So he tries to hire flair, such as in the African, Momo Sylla, an adventurous dribbler but worryingly flawed for a defender.

Hibs came to McDiarmid sitting second-top of the league, and with a team capable of playing bright, entertaining football, yet the empty seats here spoke of Saints’ struggle for recognition, even among their own. It was a dispiriting sight which was to get worse by the minute for Clark as Hibs scored two first- half goals and began toying with the home side. By that point, though, St Johnstone had been sorely handicapped.

The hosts had to play 78 minutes of this game with 10 men. It was hard to be specific about whether Weir had been carried off injured or been red-carded by Hugh Dallas, the referee - both of these, in fact, occurred. Weir’s clatter on Mixu Paatelainen as he tore through on Main’s goal looked inside the box, but the Finn was upended, Weir writhed in agony, and Dallas ordered a free-kick on the edge of the box.

Weir never recovered from his foul and took a red card from Dallas as he was borne from the field. With a certain poetic justice, Sauzee stepped forth and smashed the free-kick past Main.

Hibs might have had five or six, and perhaps St Johnstone one, possibly two, but this match lacked vigour in terms of competitive appeal. By half-time, when Hibs were two ahead, there were already angry calls from among Perth’s more impassioned for something to be done about the one-way traffic.

It was the beginning of the end for the home side. Twelve minutes after Sauzee’s strike, David Zitelli ran through on to Russell Latapy’s pass and deftly lobbed Main for Hibs’ second. In the middle of the second half Latapy then completed the job, skipping past a lumbering St Johnstone defence to send a low drive skidding inside Main’s left post. The goalkeeper, surely, wasn’t grinning when these went in.

The Teams:

Hibernian:
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St Johnstone:
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