King Kelbie!

United manager Tommy Wright made only one change to his starting line-up after the ‘heavy’ defeat at the hands of Portadown, eleven days ago. Gerard McCabe was dropped in favour of the fit again Stuart King, with Boydie dropping out of midfield, to replace McCabe at left back. United survived a couple of early scares when the pacy Glentoran attack went through them like tornados. Referee Trevor Moutray shocked United by giving them a free kick after 11 minutes and this proved a crucial decision (I said he shocked United, as he had already penalised us, ‘the visitors’, on several occasions, for what can be best described as innocuous fouls). Young Andy Rosbotham delivered a ‘gem’ of a free kick and Vinny Sweeney swept the ball into the net from six-yards to put United one up. The lead was however short-lived and five minutes later the Glens scored the equaliser, when United were caught ‘flatfooted’ and with Halliday rising above the defence he duly headed home. Questions must be asked as to why young keeper Willie McFrederick, didn’t come out to claim this cross, but stood stranded on his goal-line and why Holmes of Glentoran was allowed to cross the ball in the first place. The United defence was put under severe pressure after this and almost conceded another goal straight after, but were indebted to captain Gary Smyth for a goal-line clearance. Glentoran weren’t standing on ceremony and the referee allowed a lot of late tackles, one especially on Boydie was really horrendous, but the referee was oblivious to United’s protests. Strangely enough he cautioned United’s Rory Hamill, for what can best be described as an innocuous tackle and one has to question the choice of a ‘local’ referee for such a match. United gradually ‘clawed’ their way back into the game and probably should’ve taken the lead before half-time. Stuart King, deployed on the right wing, went off on a mazy run, zipping past half a dozen Glens men in the process, but delayed his pass and Gareth Scates’s shot had no pace and was easily diverted for a corner by the Glens defence. On the stroke of half-time King brought a superb save from Glens keeper Elliot Morris, with a vicious shot from the edge of the box.


United had to make an enforced change at half-time with leading scorer Vinny Sweeney being replaced by Kevin Kelbie. Sweeney we later learned had been violently sick during the interval, symptoms which he had been suffering from all week. Kelbie, who had been on trial at the Oval loked a lot sharper than in his previous games and in fact won a few aerial tussles against the Glens defenders. Glentoran seemed content to play long balls into the United box for most of the second half and these were ‘bread and butter’ for Gary Smyth & Co. Stuart King went on another sprint up the field midway through the half, but unfortunately pushed the ball too far in front of him and collided with Glens fullback Mark Glendenning in a 50/50 challenge. Much to the consternation of Stuarty and the United fans, Glendenning went down as if hit with a ‘ton of bricks’. Referee Moutray fell for his ‘bluff’ and cautioned King, when no foul had been committed and in fact Glendenning needed no treatment from the Glens Physio. United keeper Willie McFrederick came to his sides rescue with a good punch from a Browne corner as the Glens pressed forward. Then in the 69th minute Glentoran midfielder Parkhorse (Carthorse would be a more apt name for him), blatantly ‘punched’ United’s Gary Haveron, but the referee and his two officials ‘saw nothing’. Haveron, who it has to be said was one of our lesser performers, was forced to leave the field for treatment to his ‘bloody’ face, as if to add insult to injury so to speak. Glentoran surprisingly took off their best player, Halliday, with Morgan taking his place and I for one breathed a sigh of relief. Glens continued to punt long hopeful balls into the United half and though these were virtually ineffective, the United defence did tend to defend a little too deeply for my peace of mind. It looked as if United were settling for a draw, when after 80 minutes they withdrew Hamill, with the fit again Aiden Watson taking his place. As it turned out later, Hamill, who is a bit of a ‘talisman’ for the Sky Blues, was suffering from a hamstring injury and it was a forced substitution rather than a tactical one. United’s Kieran Donaghy, who had been under the ‘cosh’ throughout the game, decided the old adage still rang true and I quote, ‘the best means of defence is attack’ and took off on a run from deep in his own box, but unfortunately lost possession just over the halfway line. Then after 82 minutes he demonstrated that his previous run was only a ‘tester’ and ‘powered’ his way through the Glens defence, in one of the best pieces of football I personally have witnessed in many a long day. Despite Shaun Holmes attempts to haul him down on at least three occasions, Kieran burst into the Glens box, but then seemed to panic and screwed his shot wide of the goals. Referee Moutray was forced to caution the Glentoran player, but it was in my opinion, too little too late. Gary Haveron also missed a glorious chance as United carried the game to the Glens, when he also ‘screwed’ a snap shot wide from the edge of the box. It was obvious that the game was up for grabs at this point, but it seemed that neither team could find that elusive piece of magic to unlock the respective defences. ‘Cometh the hour cometh the man’, as the old saying goes and what a glorious move it proved to be. Now I’m a longstanding United man and I’ve witnessed all the ‘highs and lows’ and believe me this was definitely a ‘high’. Firstly Gareth Scates fed a delightful pass to Stuarty King and the former Linfield man sprinted up the wing, leaving Glens defenders in his wake, before squaring for the inrushing Kelbie to knock the ball into the net from six yards out. What a glorious goal, my United scarf got it’s first ‘airing’ for a few years and I was virtually speechless, nothing but unintelligible noises coming out. What a superb move I thought and what a ‘fairytale’ for Kevin Kelbie to notch the vital goal. The Glens ‘huffed and puffed’ over the last six minutes, plus two minutes of stoppage time, but the United defence held firm. This result actually jumped us up from ninth to fourth in the league table and in my heart I was singing, ‘there’s only one Kevin Kelbie’, ‘one Kevin Kelbie’, ‘walking along, singing a song’, ‘walking in a “Sky Blue” wonderland’!

McFrederick 7 Hamill 7 MoM: Kelbie

Donaghy 7 Sweeney 8

Boydie 7 Scates 8

Haveron 6 Rosbotham 7 Referee: M. Moutray 3

Alb. Watson 7 1st Sub Kelbie 8

Smyth 8 2nd Sub Watson 7

King 7