Goal Missing!

United manager Tommy Wright, or as the United fans familiarly call him, ‘Tommy Wright! Wright! Wright! Wright!’ said same again to the team that lost to Linfield in the County Antrim Shield final. Not only did he not change the team, he kept the same bench, which in my opinion leaves him with few options. Surely it’s time for a recall for the veteran Boydie, who can play either defence or midfield and new striker Paul Brown, who definitely gives us another option up front. Aiden Watson as it turned out actually injured himself during the ‘warm up’ and later told the manager he thought it was too late to change the team so close to kick-off so said nothing. Whether this is true or it was the more likely scenario of United’s wage policy, ‘no play, half pay’, we’ll probably never know, but it could’ve cost us dearly nonetheless. As it was United should and could’ve had this game over long before halftime, but again that old ‘malaise’ of missed chances came back to haunt us. The biggest culprit on this occasion, was also arguably our best player during the first 45 minutes, Larne man Gary Haveron. Gary quite easily might have scored a hat-trick in the first half and in my opinion proves the point time and again that he is playing out of position. During the first 20 minutes he directed two free headers wide of the target, when I have to say it looked easier to score. Then when he finally managed to get one on target, home keeper Phillip Matthews was equal to the task pushing his effort over the bar. Then he completely miskicked when attempting an ambitious volley, which if it had been on target would’ve been spectacular. Gary was not alone in the ‘miss’ department as Vinny Sweeney elected to pass when coming in from the left and then when Kelbie fed it back to him, drove the ball into the side netting. Kelbie who has been the United ‘talisman’ with his scoring exploits lately, was less effective on today’s showing and maybe he needs a wee break to recharge his batteries. The worst miss of the half for my money came when Stuarty King found himself unmarked in the centre of the home team’s penalty box and elected to hit his right foot shot to the keepers left and Matthews diverted it for a corner. I know some folks will think I’m being hard on Stuarty, as they’ll rightly point out that hadn’t Matthews saved his shot he would’ve scored, but I firmly believe that the keeper encouraged him to go for his left side, by leaving a bigger gap for him to aim at. Of course if Stuarty had gone for the tight side and the keeper saved his effort I would probably have blamed him for not taking the easier looking option, so maybe he couldn’t win anyway. Referee Davey Malcolm, whom I foolishly praised for his handling of the Shield semi-final between United and Larne, was back to his incompetent self and demonstrated this from virtually the first kick of the match. Home striker Darren Armour chased a pass into the box, which United keeper Willie McFrederick picked up only to be caught late by the Distillery striker. Referee Malcolm not only didn’t caution the striker, he made the United keeper throw the ball into touch in order to get treatment. The Whites defence under severe pressure throughout the remainder of the first period, continually fouled the United players but the referee took no action whatsoever and then of course cautioned United’s Aiden Watson for retaliation after he was fouled. This of course only proves the point that Davey is after all, ‘tiny testes’ and we can expect little else from him.

Aiden Watson didn’t come out for the second period, with Phil Charnock taking his place and metaphorically speaking the United team didn’t come out either. Of course they did contrive to look yet another ‘gift horse in the mouth’, when Sweeney fed the ball to Gareth Scates and the former Linfield man with the goal at his mercy, blasted the ball miles over the bar. This just about summed up Scates contribution on the day and surely the United manager must know by now that his talents are wasted wide on the right. Surely it’d be much better to play King on the right and Rosbotham on the left, although Scates does allow Kieran Donaghy the freedom to overlap and which he is doing more regularly. With the home team coming more into the game in the second period, the United defence were under a bit more pressure and Gary Smyth became the second player to be cautioned for a foul on Armour. The home team continued to have immunity from the referee as they didn’t allow United to play any flowing football. Midway through the half the United manager made his now predictable substitution, taking off Scates who was now starting to play a bit and bringing on Gerard Rowe. United seemed to be stuck in a rut at this stage and as the home team continued to gain a foothold in the match, I started to think that a replay was our best hope. The United defence held firm but the chances did come and McFrederick saved Gary Smyth’s blushes with a good block and then the whole defence went asleep at a corner but luckily the home attackers didn’t take advantage. The United manager took off top scorer Sweeney and brought on Rory Hamill, who more and more gives the impression of a man playing out his contract, as he contributes little or nothing to the team. Referee Malcolm did finally caution a home player for a foul, but it was too little, too late, in my opinion. United survived another scare when a shot from a Whites forward skidded off Donaghy’s shins and McFrederick again came to the rescue. United held out for a draw and had once more allowed victory to escape them and once more it has to be said it was a case of too many missed chances!

McFrederick 8 Aiden Watson 6 MoM: McFrederick

Donaghy 7 Sweeney 6

McClean 7 Kelbie 6

Haveron 7 King 6 Referee: D. Malcolm 3

Albert Watson 7 1st Sub: Charnock 6

Smyth 7 2nd Sub: Rowe 5

Scates 6 3rd Sub: Hamill 4