Mugger Malcolm!

United manager Tommy Wright, as predicted in Sky Blue Sport, brought in Phil Charnock for the injured Aiden Watson and also started Rory Hamill instead of Gareth Scates. His subs were Paul Brown, Scates and Rowe, which meant no place for the veteran Boydie. I and my colleagues at ‘Sport have been making the case for Boydie to be named on the bench for the last few weeks, but the United manager seems to have other ideas, this in my opinion came back to haunt him tonight. Distillery were a different team tonight as they took the game to United right from the kick-off and they took the lead after only 9 minutes. Midfielder Gary Haveron with time to clear the ball himself, chose to lay it off to left back McClean and he ‘dithered’ and allowed visiting number 8 Conor Hagan to rob him of the ball. Hagan strode towards the United box before drilling a shot from 18 yards across McFrederick’s body off the inside of the post and into the net. Maybe I’m being a bit harsh here, but I think the keeper should’ve got a touch to the ball, but he didn’t and we were one nil down. Even after this reverse United couldn’t seem to shake off their lethargy and Gary Smyth came to his side’s rescue when visiting striker Darren Armour threatened soon after. Gary Haveron, who had such a good game on Saturday, was all at sea tonight and Rory Hamill playing wide right was a virtual passenger. United’s first good move came when Charnock found King with a good pass, but Kelbie was unable to get to the winger’s cross. King was involved in United’s best move and when Kelbie burst into the visitor’s box, he was blatantly tripped, but referee Davey Malcolm waved play on saying that no contact was made. This was so ridiculous as there was no reason for Kelbie to go down, as he was about to ‘pull the trigger’ and he was clear through on goal, but ‘tiny testes’ waved aside United’s protests. But worse was to follow as the match neared halftime and Davey ruled out what appeared to be a perfectly executed United equaliser. Stuarty King took a pass wide on the left, but his attempted cross ricocheted off a Whites defender, young Craig McClean bounded after the ball as it neared the touchline, before crossing for Kelbie to hammer the ball into the net. The United fans rose as one, only to sit down in disbelief when the referee ruled the goal out, intimating that the ball was out of play before McClean crossed it. As neither the referee nor the Linesman were up with the play, it was hard to see how they could make this decision, but make they did.

The United manager took off top scorer Vinny Sweeney at halftime and brought on new signing Paul Brown and it has to be said United began with more urgency in the second period. The United fans who had been strangely quiet in the first half, suddenly found their voices and for fifteen minutes the home team laid siege to the visitor’s goal. Rory Hamill had a great run down the right, but his hard low cross eluded everybody. Then from a King corner the referee adjudged that the keeper was fouled when nobody touched him. United were keeping the Whites under the cosh at this stage, but as it so often happens in football, instead of them finding an equaliser it was the visitors who increased their lead. After winning a corner a Whites player hit a tremendous shot which cannoned off the post to safety, but with the United defenders still in shock the ball was played back in and visiting striker Darren Armour steered the ball into the net. United manager Tommy Wright’s decision was to take off Phil Charnock and bring on Gareth Scates. United went back on the offensive but couldn’t just find the vital telling pass to unlock the tight Whites defence. Distillery should’ve put the match beyond United, when after winning a free kick wide on the right, the home defence went asleep and they were indebted to their keeper for a good block to save the day. With 15 minutes to go Wright took off McClean and brought on Rowe and went into all out attack mode. Rowe almost made an instant impact when he found Rory Hamill unmarked in the box, but the Coleraine man seemed to be caught in two minds as to whether to shoot or trap the ball and in the end allowed it to go past him for a goalkick, a real howler of a miss. The breakthrough finally came when Brown scored his first goal for the club with a bullet header from a Scates corner. That was in the 82nd minutes and five minutes later the Whites keeper kept his team ahead with a fabulous save from Kelbie. The United striker had got on the end of a King cross and hit a near perfect shot, but the Distillery keeper was able to parry the ball and saved the day for his team. Try as United might they couldn’t conjure up an equaliser and all those missed chances from last Saturday did in the end come back to haunt them and so the wait for a trophy goes on. On this showing the United management team will have a mammoth task getting the team up for the visit to Windsor Park on Saturday, but one thing is surely apparent to them now, a half fit Brown, is loads better than a fully fit waster and we have plenty of them!

McFrederick          6          Hamill               5     MoM:     Kelbie

Donaghy          6          Sweeney          6

McClean          5          Kelbie               8

Haveron          5          King               7     Referee:      D. Malcolm     1

Albert Watson          7          1st Sub: Brown      7

Smyth               6          2nd Sub: Scates      7

Charnock          6          3rd Sub: Rowe          6