Blue Blockage!

Five short days after one of the most humiliating performances by a United team, the Sky Blues turned the form book on its head by battling out a no-score draw against last season’s super team, Linfield. Yes admittedly at times this was a ‘backs to the wall’ struggle and United rode their luck on a couple of occasions, but ‘boring’ it was not. Linfield’s ‘professional’ use of the offside trap, aided and abetted by two ‘eager’ linesmen, didn’t allow the home team to mount many attacks, but that was partly our fault for not exploiting it. United manager Tommy Wright restored team Captain Albert Watson to central defence, switching Gary Haveron to central midfield alongside the fit again Scatesy. Striker Paul Brown came back to partner Kevin Kelbie up front and the United manager boldly kept the same subs bench as on Monday night, Friel and the two youngsters, Cushley and McConaghie. Personally I thought this left us a bit limited in covering any injuries, but in the end things worked out perfectly. Linfield almost took an early lead, when the United defence allowed Gault to stroll through their defence, but the midfielder scuffed his shot and the ball trickled into keeper Paul Murphy’s arms. United also had an early chance, but Kevin Kelbie, screwed his shot wide after a slip by Linfield’s Noel Baillie. But mainly it was a solid defensive United display against a probing, but fairly predictable Linfield attack. The much ‘talked about’ Peter Thompson, showed that he still uses too short a stud, as he ‘fell over’ at every opportunity. On the rare occasions when Linfield threatened to breach the United defence, they were undone by the ‘never-say- die’ attitude of veteran Nigel Boyd. Time and again the local man tidied up behind his defence and was still available to carry the ball out of defence when the opportunity arose. In the first half Linfield had the offside trap so well ‘oiled’ that on one occasion Kelbie and Picking were given offside, when they were clearly in their own half when the ball was played. This was in complete contrast to the linesman at the other end of the ground who didn’t flag once despite Linfield’s Paul Mouncey being always beyond the United line. Maybe the linesman had a valid excuse as the three officials were almost indistinguishable from the visitors, in their dark tunics, but then again, ‘what else is new’? In a rare United attack, Gault scythed down United’s Darren Murphy, but referee Frankie Hiles, merely gave him a ‘talking to’ instead of the mandatory yellow card. United keeper Paul Murphy tipped a fierce drive over the bar to keep the scores level as halftime approached.

Linfield stepped up the pressure at the start of the second period and things looked ominous for the home team as the visitors forced several corners and throw-ins deep down the United left flank. Their throw-ins taken by Ballymena boy (I think I should rephrase that, let’s say a person from Ballymena as I don't want to sully the legacy of Norman Clarke and other dyed in the wool Sky Blue men), were almost better than corners as they were thrown right into the home penalty area. But United survived and almost snatched the lead when a Belfast boy (from deep in the Linfield heartland), Mark Picking, beat the offside trap but allowed a Linfield attacker to get back and rob him, a chance lost. The Linfield defenders berated the linesman (the officials had changed their tops to orange at halftime but not their bias) and he took heed of their instructions and duly raised his flag on cue at every opportunity thereafter. Albert Watson put in a great tackle on the ‘quiet’ Glenn Ferguson, and as the ball ran through to keeper Murphy, Frankie Hiles signalled a deliberate back-pass. This was totally unfounded, but despite the home teams protests the indirect free was given inside the box. Luckily the resultant free was blocked to safety, but Darren Murphy picked up a caution for dissent. Shortly after United keeper Murphy blocked his shot with his knees, Linfield’s great prospect, the ineffective Peter Thompson went off with fringe player Mark Dickson taking his place. Gary Haveron became the second United player to be cautioned when he fouled Glenn Ferguson, definitely not allowed. Albert Watson then ‘missed’ a glorious chance to score for the second Saturday running when despite finding himself unmarked at a free kick he missed with his header and the ball was diverted for a fruitless corner. United’s Kevin Kelbie went down injured and was replaced by the lively Austen Friel. Gault felled Darren Murphy once more and referee Hiles suddenly realised there were two teams playing and cautioned the Linfield man, too late in my mind. He then failed to apply the letter of the law when Friel burst through the visitors defence only to be rugby tackled by Douglas, a definite sending-off, whether he was the last man or not, but cowardly Frankie merely cautioned him. Friel took the kick himself and Linfield keeper Alan Manus tipped his goalbound shot over the bar. Scatesy, looking way below par, went off with youngster McConaghie taking his place and then Paul Brown was replaced by Cushley. Albert Watson came to United ‘s rescue with a goal-line clearance after a slip by Murphy and at the other end Friel allowed himself to be caught by Linfield’s Armstrong when he delayed his shot after beating the offside trap once more. United corners left a lot to be desired and surely this is something which must be worked on in training, as really they’re pretty useless at present. Linfield threw on winger Kingsberry in a last ditch attempt but the United defensive line held firm with Simms and Watson in never say die form. The fourth official, a new initiative by the I.F.A., held up the board for 5 minutes extra and Frankie managed to stretch that with stoppages to 8 minutes, but thankfully United held out for a valuable point which keeps them in the top half of the table, with only one more so called ‘hard game’ left in the first round of fixtures, away to Portadown next Saturday. In a complete contrast to Monday night, the United players were warmly applauded off the pitch and rightly so in my opinion. We hadn’t won, but we battled well and if we can show this sort of determination from now on, we might just get something out of this season after all.

P. Murphy 8 Scatesy 6 MoM: Boydie

Callaghan 7 Brown 6

Boydie 9 Kelbie 7

Haveron 8 D. Murphy 8 Referee: F. Hiles 4

Simms 8 1^st Sub: Friel 7

Alb Watson 8 2^nd Sub: McConaghie 7

Picking 7 3^rd Sub: Cushley 7