Sweeney Swoops!

Ballymena’s Limavady hoodoo struck again in the rearranged Friday night game, switched to Limavady Showgrounds (something we at ‘Sport believe should never have happened), to avoid clashing with the ‘Black Saturday’ parade at Larne. United officials were worried about the effect that the last parade of the ‘marching season’ would have on their gate receipts. As the Ballymena Showgrounds is not available for Friday night games (bloody stock cars), why couldn’t the match have been switched to the Thursday night, therefore giving United their ‘home’ advantage and a chance to get three points on the board. Having said that, United, like on their visit to Portadown, were given every chance to take all three points, but once again paid a heavy price for their missed chances. Tommy Wright, who obviously didn’t learn from his mistake of playing Gary Haveron at left back at Portadown, continued with the folly at Limavady. If Craig McClean is not available or not playing well enough, why not bring his natural replacement, Boydie, into the starting line-up. The manager did however give an instant debut to new signing Darren Murphy and he began his United career in determined fashion. United started brightly, but despite forcing several corners couldn’t find the vital breakthrough and one wonders what they work on during training, obviously not set-pieces. Gary Haveron did however have a header saved by keeper Dougherty and a Gordon Simms shot was cleared off the line. Paul Brown ‘missed’ his customary free header, when after Darren Murphy had won and crossed the ball to him, he headed ‘tamely’ over the bar. In an ironic twist of fate it was two ex-Limavady players who combined to give the Sky Blues a deserved lead. Aaron Callaghan squared a pass to Lee Patrick, who cleverly ‘chipped’ Limavady keeper Michael Dougherty from the edge of the box. That goal came after 25 minutes and despite keeping up the pressure the Sky Blues couldn’t find another way through the home defence and the score at half-time was one nil for the visitors.

Four minutes into the second-half, Limavady were level, when Albert Watson ignored advice to let the ball go for a goal kick and instead headed it straight to striker Stephen Parkhorse, who last year turned down a chance to sign for Ballymena. The big striker chested the ball down, before volleying a 20 yard shot past keeper Paul Murphy. Limavady had changed their formation to a 4, 3, 3 and the United manager changed likewise switching Austin Friel into an attacking role although he appeared to still play fairly deep. Ten minutes later former Ballymena player Vinny Sweeney’s shot cannoned off the post and as it was cleared upfield, Kevin Kelbie beat keeper Dougherty in a race for the ball and then had his legs swept from under him by the keeper. This should have brought Ballymena a penalty and the keeper an early bath, but to the astonishment of visiting fans referee Robert Penney booked Kelbie for diving. This was a complete farce as Kelbie was ‘clean’ through and certain to score, so why would he ‘dive’? This was not the only ‘clanger’ by the Carrickfergus official, as he completely 'missed the bus', when former Ballymena player Sweeney grabbed United defender Simms round the throat in an off the ball incident. Insult was added to injury when the Sky Blues defence failed to cut out a through ball and Sweeney nipped between keeper Murphy and defender Callaghan, to score from a wide angle. Kelbie had earlier missed a ‘sitter’ when he completely fluffed his shot with the goal at his mercy, after a knock down from Paul Brown. Manager Wright rung the changes, taking off Darren Murphy, Friel and Kelbie, bringing on, Scates, Fitzgerald and Melly, to little or no effect. United were in need of encouragement at this stage, but team captain Albert Watson failed to motivate his team mates and one wonders if this honour has come too early for the Whitehead youngster. United finally frittered away their last chance when, after winning a free kick, they took it short and in fact lost possession instead of putting in a telling cross.


P. Murphy 6 Aid Watson 6 MoM: D. Murphy

Callaghan 7 Brown 5

D. Murphy 7 Kelbie 6

Haveron 5 Patrick 6 Referee: R. Penney 2

Alb Watson 5 1st Sub: Scates 5

Simms 6 2nd Sub: Fitzy 6

Friel 6 3rd Sub: Melly 6

Tommy's Blunder!

United turned up at Shamrock Park Portadown, with what can only be described as a strange line-up. A back four of four central defenders in, Callaghan, Albert Watson, Simms and Haveron. Their midfield consisted of Mark Picking, Aiden Watson, Lee Patrick and Craig McClean, with Austin Friel forming a two pronged strike force with Kevin Kelbie. United matched the home team during the first half, but had a let-off when a header from striker Smart beat Murphy, but somehow bounced to safety off the inside of the post. United also missed a glorious chance to open the scoring, when after a Friel snap shot from 20 yards had crashed off the bar, Kelbie somehow headed over the bar from 10 yards out with the goal at his mercy. McCutchen came close for the home side when his volley just cleared the United crossbar. With halftime approaching United took the lead, when after a good sprint down the line by Picking and an early cross, Kelbie controlled the ball before tucking it away with cool precision, to open his and United’s scoring account. Halftime was reached without any more scoring and United went in for their halftime cuppa full of confidence.

Home manager Ronnie McFall, played his ‘trump’ card by bringing on Mickey Collins at halftime and this was the beginning of the end for United. During the first 15 minutes of the half United matched their opponents and the referee had to caution Collins for dissent and another player for a heavy tackle. Gary Haveron was starting to struggle in his unaccustomed fullback position, but United manager Tommy Wright seemed reluctant to make a change. The Ports equalised after 61 minutes when Simms was adjudged to have fouled McCutchen and Smart scored from the resultant penalty. The United defence and midfield fell apart after this and six minutes later the Ports took the lead, when McCutchen volleyed home from close range. At last the United manager awoke from his slumbers and took off, winger Picking and midfielder Patrick, with Scates and Melly taking their places. Portadown wrapped up the points when Gary Haveron was caught out of position again and McCutchen headed his teams third and his own second. The United manager gave long term injury victim Darren Fitzgerald a run out late on, but he was unable to pull the game out of the fire. The damage had been done with the team selection and the United manager’s failure to react to his opposite number’s tactical change. United are now in danger of missing out on qualification for the knock-out stages of this tournament for the second successive season, nothing short of three wins and a draw will be do if the Sky Blues are to progress and that wont be easy. Next Friday night’s trip to Limavady will be a ‘tough nut to crack’, but ‘crack it’ we must!

Murphy 6 Patrick 5 MoM: Kelbie

Callaghan 6 Aid Watson 6

Haveron 5 Kelbie 6

Simms 6 Friel 6 Referee: K. Ginnett 3

Alb Watson 5 1st Sub: Scates 6

McClean 5 2nd Sub: Melly 5

Picking 5 3rd Sub: Fitzy 5

Let Down!

For the first game of the new season Sky Blue Sport, United’s oldest non-stop web site, stated that anything short of a convincing victory against the Crues, would be frowned upon. After watching yesterday’s debacle, suffice to say we are in serious frown. I fully understand that the Crues were never going to be a pushover, but if we are to be a team to be reckoned with, there are just the sort of team we need to put to the sword. United looked more like a team with a hard season behind them, rather than a team with a spring in their step, looking forward to a prosperous season. Albert Watson, the new team captain struggled to form a convincing partnership with Gary Haveron and they were indebted to new goalkeeper Paul Murphy for saving their blushes. The Crues could and probably should’ve had this game wrapped up at halftime, as they dominated the first half. Ex-Linfield striker Davey Larmour forced Murphy into a good save, hit the crossbar and screwed yet another shot wide, three really good chances and his strike partner twice shot narrowly past Murphy’s upright, although the keeper seemed to have the shots covered. Little was seen of United as an attacking force, but on the rare occasions they did break forward they were ‘scythed’ to the ground by the ‘hatchet men’ ably backed up by referee McFadden. When the visiting defenders hacked our players down he flourished no yellow cards, merely admonishing the culprits, a complete waste of time. Aiden Watson, who has just signed a new two year contract, had his worst ever game in a Sky Blue shirt and was incapable of finding a United player with a pass. But we somehow created the best opening of the half when Paul Brown failed to connect with a free header, with only the keeper to beat. Mark Picking, recently signed from Linfield was a virtual passenger throughout the match and along with Aiden Watson contributed nothing to the Sky Blue cause. Former player Lee Patrick, was little better, but he at least managed to get on the end of a Brown flick, but with the home fans waiting for him to blast the ball goalwards, he tried to ‘bend it’ round the keeper, but only succeeded in hitting it wide of the target. This was as good as it got for United in the first half, but we hoped that manger Wright, serving a one match touchline ban, would somehow be able to convey some instructions to his team during the interval.

Alas the second half was no better than the first and things took a bad turn when ten minutes into the half Lee Patrick limped off with a thigh injury, with Gareth Scates coming on in his place. Scatesy did manage to inject some urgency into his team mates, but the Crues defence held firm. The visitors showed that they had obviously been watching the World cup, as their ‘histrionics’ every time they were tackled was extremely nauseating to say the least. The referee did ignore it for the main part, but with United mounting a rare sustained attack, which resulted in a corner, his attention was drawn to a linesman’s flag. After consulting with the official, he flourished a red card to United’s Paul Brown for allegedly striking an opponent, which the big man says was a total fabrication. But his protests were in vain, but what I couldn’t understand was how the linesman could have witnessed this altercation as he was a good thirty yards away and we all know they can’t see anything more than ten yards away. The referee who had signalled for a corner gave the visitors a goalkick to restart the game, a strange decision to say the least. United strangely enough played their best football when down to ten men, but couldn’t make the vital breakthrough. United assistant manager Jim Grattan took off Andy Rosbotham and brought on Dominic Melly, who gave us a better outlet down the left flank. Melly in fact came close to scoring, when his free kick from twenty-five yards just scraped the post. Grattan then played his final ‘ace’, taking off the ineffective Picking and giving a debut to new signing Austin Friel. What an inspired substitut6ion this was, where Picking had been ineffective, Friel was ‘electric’ and put the visiting defence under some pressure. As he went on one ‘mazy’ run he was deliberately kicked by a visiting player and the referee send him for an early bath as well. This was late in the game and United missed yet another free kick taken by Haveron, which was driven against the Crusaders wall, which was allowed to encroach by the referee. In a rare Crusaders breakaway, Murphy once more thwarted the visitors with a good save. Friel almost made them pay dearly for their misses when he got on the end of a Scates pass but failed to find a way through to goal. The match petered out to a scoreless draw, which left the visitors frustrated, but United feeling incredibly lucky. There’ll need to be a vast improvement if United are to progress in this competition as their next two games are away to Limavady and Portadown and our record at those two grounds doesn’t make for comforting reading!

Murphy 7 Aid Watson 4 MoM: Murphy

Callaghan 6 Brown 6

McClean 6 Kelbie 6

Patrick 5 Rosbotham 5 Referee: P. McFadden 2

Haveron 6 1st Sub: Scates 6

Alb Watson 5 2nd Sub: Melly 6

Picking 4 3rd Sub: Friel 6