Floodlight Robbery!

Ballymena made their first trek of the season to Newry last night, hoping to record their second win on the bounce, but had to settle for a share of the ‘spoils’, which was probably a fair result. With captain Gary Smyth failing a fitness test on his head injury, it meant a recall for Albert Watson in defence. Manager Wright also promoted Willie McFrederick from the reserves as net minder. Johnny Steele was given a starting role upfront alongside stand-in captain Rory Hamill, which meant Vinny Sweeney dropping back into right midfield. Newry showed their intent of playing for a draw from the outset, endeavouring to catch the Sky Blues offside, while offering little as an attacking force themselves. This, as so often happens, did backfire on them on a couple of occasions. After 17 minutes a nice bit of interplay between Hamill and Sweeney saw the latter bear down on goal, from the right. Stuart King took up a good position near the penalty spot, waiting for a pass, but Sweeney selfishly shot for goal, but failed to find the target, a bad miss. But United weren’t to be denied for long and they took the lead after 28 minutes when Hamill timed his run to perfection when Kieran Donaghy split the home defence with a superb thorough ball. Hamill coolly drew former United keeper Goosey Robinson, before slotting the ball into the empty net. Referee McFadden who up until then had had, a fairly good game, suddenly seemed to be overcome with bias, so much so that every time a United player challenged for a ball, he gave a foul to the home team. Despite forcing several corners United were unable to add to their tally and the delivery from corner kicks is something that the United coaches will have to do a lot of work on. With the halftime whistle the United fans were in a fairly jovial mood and were anticipating a good second half.

Little seemed to have changed after ten minutes of the second half, but then Roy McCreadie made a tactical switch, moving tiny winger Barry Curran inside and bringing Crawford out to the wing. This move seemed to unsettle the Sky Blues and instead of switching things themselves they chose to plunder on as before. Newry were more dominant in this half, aided and abetted by the strange decisions of referee McFadden. Despite being under pressure United did create a few openings, but were unable to supply the finishing touch. With 65 minutes gone the United manager took off the tiring Steele, giving a debut to new signing Kevin Kelbie. From almost Kelbie’s first touch he fed a delightful pass to Hamill but he was unbelievably flagged offside, he rather foolishly carried on though shooting past the post and was ‘harshly’ yellow carded by the referee. Just shortly after Kelby came on United won a free on the right and for once King’s free was spot on, but Gordon Simms somehow failed to find the target from the edge of the six-yard box. This was to prove a costly miss as Newry scored an equaliser in the 73rd minute. This was a really depressing goal as it came when United had seemed to have weathered the ‘Newry Storm’ and were coming more into the game themselves. United were in fact building an attack from their own half, when a short pass was intercepted and with the United defence at ‘sixes and sevens’, former Institute striker Damien Whitehead was left completely unmarked in the United penalty area. Sure enough when the cross came over Whitehead easily found the net with a header giving McFrederick, who was rooted to his goal-line, no chance. As United prepared to kick-off, a Newry player encroached and was blown up by the referee. The player then deliberately kicked the ball away, the referee true to form took no action. United to their credit kept plugging away and Kelbie was put through by the resourceful Hamill, but with Goosey rooted to his line he delayed his shot and a Newry defender got back to slide in and divert the ball for a corner. Two minutes later Boydie was caught in a ‘sandwich’ with two Newry players, but strangely the upshot was a free to Newry and a booking for the United player. From this resultant free kick, United failed to clear their lines and were indebted to their keeper for a good save from Whitehead’s ferocious shot, when he had been left unmarked once more. Stuart King then became the third United player to get his name taken for a late tackle, but I emphasis, it was late, it was not brutal. With ten minutes left the United manager took King off and brought on striker Paul McDowell upfront and United went into all out attack. McDowell did manage to conjure up a chance when he got to the by-line, but his deep cross was just too good for the incoming Sweeney. Five minutes from the end the manager played his final trump card, taking off Boydie and bringing on young McClean, but I can’t remember him even getting a touch on the ball. The match petered out to a draw, which now leaves United in the position that winning their two remaining games may not be enough, but it still could be; only time will tell!


McFrederick          7     Aiden Watson          6     MOM:  Hamill

Donaghy          7     Steele               6

Boydie               7     Hamill               8

Haveron          6     King               6     Referee:  P. McFadden     2

Simms               6     1st Sub: Kelbie          6

Watson          6     2nd Sub: McDowell     6

Sweeney          6     3rd Sub: McClean     6