Gold Championship 52: The Saints Claim the Scottish Shield!

March 11th, 2009 by SM Dev (Ste)

Following a great run of form in the Scottish Shield, St. Mirren, managed by James Wright, lifted the trophy after beatings Rangers on penalties.

The small Scottish side overcame a number of odds to raise the Scottish Shield above their heads.

Their run saw them take out Division 2 side Patrick Thistle  5-1 thanks to a hattrick by the super-sub Kristap Grebis.

The second round of the Scottish Shield saw a slight scare as Division 2 side Greenock Morton nearly made a late comeback, however, thanks to Kristab Grebis’s two goals the side won 3-2.

Injury kept Grebis out of the remaining Scottish Shield games.

However, as St. Mirren entered the last eight we gave a 4-0 thrashing to a struggling Kilmarnock side with goals spread all around the team - including youth player Jefferson Congo.

At this point of the season, St. Mirren were knocked out of the Scottish Cup in the last eight 1-0 to a full strength Rangers.

The Scottish Shield semi-final match saw St. Mirren up against then first placed Falkirk who were in fine form at 3-1-1 in their last five games, losing only to a strong Celtic side.

A full strength Falkirk side was no match for an inform St. Mirren though who won the match 3-1 with Burton O’Brien getting Falkirk a consolation goal in the 78th minute.

The Scottish Shield final saw two strong teams face off in front of 88,000 fans at Wembley.

Rangers fielded an attacking 3-5-2 formation whilst St. Mirren took to the field with a confusing formation that nearly left the midfield empty.

St. Mirren had four defenders at the back, holding back as far as they could, with  Rafael Carioca sitting just in front of them. The middle of the field was nearly empty as three attacking midfielders pushed up to join with two forwards to form a strange 4-1-3-2 formation.

The game began in exciting fashion.

After being booked in the first minute for pulling an opposing player to the ground, on loan midfielder Pereira Rafael Carioca then cleaned up a loose ball in the 4th minute to score a quick opener for St. Mirren.

New signing Charles Aranguiz gave the Rangers defense plenty of trouble after getting one-on-one with the keeper, but skinning the outside of the post with his shot.

He followed up four minutes later with a blinding shot that once again shave the post.

Despite having a brilliant match thoguh, his efforts went unrewarded and his missed chances came back to haunt him as in the 32nd minute Kyle Lafferty brought Rangers back into the game with a beautiful right-footed shot off the woodwork.

As the game progressed, Rangers failed to break down the wall of defenders that St. Mirren plugged in front of goal and despite maintaining possession 64% of the time could not even field good chances, with 20 shots but only 6 on target.

St. Mirren on the other hand took their chances well with only 13 shots, but 11 of them on target.

Eventually the final whistle was blown and the teams wen to penalties.

The St. Mirren goalkeeper, Chris Smith, became the hero on the night with three saves, combined with one miss from Rangers saw St. Mirren take the Scottis Shield on penalties 3-1.

St. Mirren now have the task of maintaining their league form and to prepare their 10,000 seater stadium for SMFA Shield football next season.

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Posted in: Member Success Stories

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