Tired Legs!

The last thing Ballymena needed against Portadown last Friday night was a bad start and with ‘Murphy’s’ law in operation (as usual), that’s exactly what they got. In fact the Ports almost took the lead straight from the kick-off, as Richard Clarke ran right across our back line, with no-one getting a tackle in, before shooting wide of the target. But the Ports, with Gary Hamilton at his best, weren’t to be denied for long and with barely four minutes on the clock they prised open the United defence once more. Hamilton was the architect on this occasion as he fed the ball wide to Wesley Boyle and he squared it for the inrushing Clarke to put the Ports one up. United to their credit did try to play some football, but Portadown (aided and abetted by some ‘weird’ decisions by Carrick referee Robert Penney, who failed to caution Collins for ‘blatantly’ blasting the ball onto the terracing when a foul had been given against him), kept United under their stranglehold. After 19 minutes the Ports won a corner on their left, but the United defence held firm on this occasion and the ball was cleared to near the halfway line. A Ports player launched a high ‘hopeful’ ball towards United’s penalty area, where United keeper Willie McFrederick for some reason known only to himself, decided to come and claim. Now one of McFrederick’s big failings is his reluctance to come off his line, so what made him do this on Friday night is anybody’s guess. As he is not used to coming out for balls, he completely misjudged it and when the ball was headed goalwards he was stranded and Gary Hamilton had no trouble finding the net from 15 yards out. United did manage to regroup after this but Vincent Sweeney missed a ‘sitter’ when a beauty of a pass from Scates, split the Ports defence. With Vinny bearing down on goal the Ports keeper stayed ‘rooted’ to his goal-line and the big forward rewarded him by ‘blasting’ wide with his left foot. I personally believe this was the ‘final nail in the United coffin’, as a goal then would of brought us back into the match, but Vinny let the ‘Ports’ off the hook when he failed to find the target. Surely the first ‘rule’ in this situation must be to hit the ‘target’, after that anything can happen. Referee Penney, no doubt not wanting his car scratched ignored a vicious elbow by Collins on United’s Rory Hamill and in fact allowed play to continue. Referee Penney proved his eyesight wasn’t completely biased though, when he ignored Ports claims for a blatant foul by United captain Gary Smyth in the penalty box. Portadown then punished United further with another goal, when a Hamilton corner caught the United defence at the near post and the ball ricocheted to the unmarked Kelly at the far post, who slotted home. This goal came after 35 minutes and three minutes later Sweeney missed another chance, when his cross shot somehow trickled past the post with the keeper beaten. Two minutes before the break United finally broke their ‘duck’ when Rosbotham, like so many of his colleagues a passenger throughout the game, fed Scatesy down the right wing channel. Scates ‘whipped’ over a delightful cross which Hamill chested home at the near post. This goal was no more than United deserved, but it was ‘too little, too late’, in my book.

United who had begun with the same team that started the midweek Shield victory over Cliftonville, took off Gerard McCabe, with Stephen Collier taking his place and the team switching to three at the back. For the first five minutes of this period this ploy looked good as Collier got ‘stuck in’ to a couple of Ports players, who clearly didn’t like it. This in fact resulted in referee Penney finally getting his yellow card out to caution Ports midfielder Clarke for unnecessary rough play. He then proved that he had made a mistake, as he allowed Gary Hamilton to get away with raising his hands to Collier, after some ‘argy bargy’ on the touchline. But for some reason known only to Collier and the United management this ploy was stopped and United conceded yet another goal. Once again Hamilton was the provider as with his back to goal he laid a delightful pass into Clarke’s path and he showed Sweeney how it should be done by curling the ball wide of McFrederick to make it 4-1. Ten minutes later it was five when a Hamilton corner was headed in from inside the six-yard box, with McFrederick ‘rooted’ to his goal-line and Gary Haveron easily out-jumped. At this stage United looked to be heading for a massive defeat and their cause wasn’t helped when Rory Hamill could only hit the post from twenty yards with the goal at his mercy. United manager Tommy Wright took this opportunity to bring Kevin Kelbie on to replace Sweeney but this made no difference whatsoever. In fact Hamilton missed a sitter when the United defence got caught out and he was left ‘one on one’ with McFrederick, who stayed ‘rooted’ to his goal-line, but was glad to see Hamilton’s shot hit the far post. After 65 minutes Wesley Boyle sprinted through the tired United defence to fire the ball past McFrederick from close range, to make the score 6-1 in favour of the Ports. Thankfully this completed the scoring and McFrederick made a couple of good saves late on to deny the Ports even more goals. This was Portadown without Vinny Arkins and when he came on with ten minutes left I was a bit worried, but thankfully the Ports were happy with their night’s work and United managed to hold out to the end of 90 minutes without conceding any more goals. Thankfully the team has ten days to recover, before making a ‘daunting’ trip to the Oval to play the Glens, a vast improvement will be needed if United are to get anything other than a defeat, from that game!

McFrederick          5          Hamill               7     MoM:          Scates

Donaghy          5          Sweeney          5

McCabe           6          Scates               7

Haveron          5          Rosbotham          5     Referee:      R. Penney          2

Watson          6          1st Sub: Collier     5

Smyth               5           2nd Sub: Kelbie     5

Boydie               6