Diving Wins!

For thirty five minutes today Ballymena United withstood the Linfield storm, sometimes with a bit of luck it must be said, but also with a lot of skill. United manager Tommy Wright made three changes to his starting line-up of Tuesday night, with as expected team Captain Gary Smyth returning as central defender alongside Albert Watson and young Craig McClean, slotting in at left back in place of Boydie. The other change was former Linfield man Phil Charnock, coming in for Andy Rosbotham. United fans were surprised to see that Boydie, the only local player on the team ‘books’, didn’t even manage a place on the bench. Boydie’s natural enthusiasm and his determination to do well against the ‘Blues’, who controversially dropped him like a hot potato after ‘tapping’ him a few seasons ago, always fires the rest of the team up. But United appeared to be coping fairly well, although Linfield looked dangerous from set-pieces, aided and abetted by some strange decisions from referee Adrian McCourt, which kept the home team under pressure. Referee McCourt, as biased as ever, allowed Linfield to get away with some heavy tackles, especially on former player Charnock and on one occasion after Charnock had received treatment for a head injury, ignored by the referee who let play continue until Linfield played it over the touch line, he was immediately ‘booted’ in the head again and the referee allowed play to go on as we had the ball. After 34 minutes Sweeney went on a run up the left wing, leaving three Linfield players in his wake, only to lose possession at the vital moment. Young left back Craig McClean following up then fouled a Linfield player, who reacted badly and clearly threw a punch at Sweeney, who defended himself as is natural. United fans waited for the mandatory red card, but McCourt merely called Sweeney and his assailant together and gave them both a talking to, what a waste of time. But worse was to follow a minute later, when young Craig McClean allowed the Blues winger too much space and he delivered a beautiful cross. I say a beautiful cross, but it was actually too good, as it eluded everybody, but former United player Oran Kearney threw himself forward in a vain attempt to reach it. Suddenly the referee pointed to the penalty spot, United fans stared on in misbelief and the United defenders were utterly shattered as nobody had come within a yard of Kearney, whose burst of speed had taken him well beyond any of them. I personally thought the referee was giving a free kick to United, accusing the Linfield player of ‘diving’, but no, he gave a penalty. United defenders quizzed after the game would just say ‘we were nowhere near him and he knows what he did’. Pat McShane, the Linfield number 3, duly slotted the ball home, but it left a bad taste in the mouth of United fans. The home team’s heads were down after this and the visitors almost added to their lead, when after a corner led to a goalmouth scramble the ball appeared to cross the United goal-line, but a for once alert linesman had spotted an offside.

United came out for the second half in a more determined mood and took the game to the league leaders, who, it has to be said looked rather ordinary when under pressure. Rory Hamill and Vinny Sweeney were a constant threat down the middle, aided and abetted by former Linfield player Stuart King. Linfield’s answer to this was to put King out of the game, when he was ‘cleaned’ as he dribbled past McShane. Referee McCourt, who had earlier ‘booked’ King for dissent after the penalty incident, allowed the culprit to get off. From the resultant free kick, Charnock hit the ball over the bar, when surely a shot on target was called for. King hobbled off to be replaced by Scates and United began to really stretch the Blues defence. Scates was guilty of a bad miss, when after a neat dribble he chose to pass instead of shooting. After sixty minutes we won yet another free kick, when Hamill had his shirt pulled for the umpteenth time (is that why so many Blues player end up at the Showgrounds, because they like our Sky Blue jerseys), Charnock was much better with his aim on this occasion as Manus saved at the second attempt. Linfield almost sealed the points when Thompson burst down the left but McFrederick saved well at the expense of a corner. Then in a nice bit of attacking play, Aiden Watson fed the ball into Hamill’s path and Manus saved at the expense of a corner. From Charnock’s inswinger, Gary Smyth, headed over the bar. Big Gary had probably his worst game since joining the Sky Blues and appeared to give young Peter Thompson too much respect, maybe a sign that the United Captain’s best days are behind him, even Gary’s famous throw-ins, rarely troubled the Blues defence. With 20 minutes left, Gary Haveron burst onto the scene, to fire a goalbound shot, which Manus once more parried and the ball was cleared for another fruitless United corner. This was surprisingly Haveron’s last action as the United manager took him off and brought on winger Andy Rosbotham. I must say this decision completely ‘bamboozled’ me, as I thought we surrendered the initiative back to Linfield. Alas 3 minutes later I was proved correct, when from another Linfield corner the ball fell to the unmarked Glenn Ferguson and he volley the ball into the net from 12 yards out. This was the end for United and manager Wright absolutely dumfounded United fans by taking striker Rory Hamill off and bringing on reserve player Paul McDowell. Surely if we wanted to get a goal, it would have been much wiser to have taken off a midfielder, like Aiden Watson, who had struggled the whole match and really have had a go with three strikers. United to their credit continued to probe and Vinny Sweeney almost reduced the leeway, as he chased a through ball, but his toe poke just shaved the post. In the end United were found wanting, but it was sad to think that the match turned when a former United hero, showed his true colours, by taking a ‘dive’, to win his current team a penalty. ‘Same old Oran, but this time cheating’!

McFrederick 7 Haveron 8 MoM: Haveron

Collier 6 Hamill 7

McClean 6 Sweeney 8

Aid. Watson 5 King 6

Alb. Watson 7 1st Sub: Scates 7 Referee: A. McCourt 2

Smyth 5 2nd Sub: Rosbotham 5

Charnock 7 3rd Sub: McDowell 6