Sunny Skys!

As if it was preordained, Ballymena and Limavady trotted out at the Showgrounds to one of the smallest home crowds, but served up a goal feast, on a day more suited to summer pastimes. The Warden Street venue was bathed in sunshine and the visitors with former United hitman Vinny Sweeney partnering Stephen Parkhorse up front, let the home team know they had no intention of merely making up the numbers. Ballymena took the field with only 13 fit first team panel members and with no cover at left-back, which meant Darren Murphy filling in at the number 3 position and Austin Friel taking Murphy’s spot in left midfield. United took the lead after 12 minutes when Paul Brown headed a Friel corner into the net with the keeper stranded. Limavady were level after 19 minutes when their best player, Ryan Semple, swept past Darren Murphy, before Parkhorse got a touch to his driven cross. The linesman at that end of the ground had already ‘missed’ a couple of blatant offsides and United were indebted to their keeper Paul Murphy when he saved point blank from Sweeney, who was miles offside, but undetected by the linesman. Kevin Kelbie put the home team ahead when he beat the visiting keeper to the ball to head into the net after 30 minutes. This lead was short-lived as after some nice dribbling by Semple, the visitors levelled once more when United failed to clear the danger in the 35^th minute. Worse was to follow 3 minutes later when Semple clearly ‘dived’ at the edge of the United box and referee Frankie Hiles gave a free kick. The visitors left-back, Cutmore, drilled a low shot past Murphy who probably didn’t see the ball until it was too late. The linesman at that end of the ground finally woke from his slumbers and raised his flag close to halftime when Sweeney once more strayed into an offside position.

Before the start of the second-half United manager Tommy Wright took off the ineffective Friel and brought on Andy Rosbotham, which gave the home side a better shape in my opinion. Andy is also a ‘dab hand’ with dead ball kicks and United put the visitors defence under a bit more pressure. The linesman at that end of the ground was making up for lost time in the first half, as he seemed to constantly flag United forwards in general and Kevin Kelbie in particular offside at every opportunity. The visiting keeper was cautioned for persistent time wasting and I have to say he got on with the game after that. The home team to their credit kept plugging away, but it was hard to see where their equaliser was going to come from. Gareth Scates in midfield was having one of his best games and kept prompting his forwards to better things. With 69 minutes gone United won a free kick near their opponents by-line and when Rosbotham swung over a deep cross, Kelbie once more rose above the visiting keeper to level the scores. The home team were in the ascendancy now and a win looked on the cards, although manager Wright took off winger Picking and brought on Dominic Melly, not the positive move we were looking for. Surely it’d have been better to have taken off Lee Patrick who had been a virtual passenger throughout the game, rather than lose the probing runs of Picking. United looked to have snatched the winner five minutes from time when after a Rosbotham corner had been cleared, Scates fired it back in over the visitors defence and Paul Brown ghosted into space, headed across goal for Kelbie to head home. But alas the linesman stuck his flag up, which just added insult to injury in my opinion. The United strikers had timed their runs to perfection, so couldn’t be offside and surely the referee should’ve seen that, but of course the decision stood. Despite some more pressure from both teams the game ended all square, which means United finish bottom of the group, a poor, poor, result, but they at least keep their 3 match unbeaten run intact, which is scant consolation for such a pathetic C.I.S. cup campaign. With the league starting next week there’ll be no hiding places for the Sky Blues from now on, the time has come now for action and we had better get it, or heads will roll!

P. Murphy 6 Patrick 5 MoM: Kelbie

Callaghan 6 Brown 7

D. Murphy 6 Kelbie 8

Scates 7 Friel 5 Referee: F. Hiles 4

Simms 7 1^st Sub: Rosbotham 7

Watson 6 2^nd Sub: Melly 6

Picking 7