Wasted Sacrifice!

It was a tale of two goalkeepers when United visited the Oval yesterday, Glentoran's Elliot Morriss was determined not to be beaten, while United's Paul Murphy had his usual average game. United seemed to be playing very deep, as after their attacks broke down, the entire midfield sunk back on top of their defence. This allowed the home team to dictate the pace of the game, which was fine while the match was scoreless, but should, in my opinion, have been changed when we went one down. We hadn't long to wait to be one down and it's a goal neither our defence or our goalkeeper can be proud of. Firstly Glentoran striker Halliday was given acres of space, he looked offside to me, to head a cross goalwards and then our keeper spilled the ball into the path of Darren Lockhart. Lockhart blasted his shot goalwards and Aaron Callaghan in attenpting to clear only succeded in helping the ball into the net. That goal came after 12 minutes and United to their credit tightened things up at the back and except for one lapse they dominated the rest of the half. United missed three glorious chances to get on the scoresheet during the first half. Firstly Gareth Scates burst through the Glens defence, but shot straight at Morriss when it looked easier to score, then Kevin Kelby saw his header from a Darren Murphy free kick well saved by Morriss and finally Mark Picken missed from 10 yards out, shooting past the post with his left foot, when he had ample time to get it onto his right. Referee Aidrian McCourt, whom United fans know well of old, failed to caution Lockhart for a two footed tackle, but cautioned leftback Kyle Neill for protesting about even giving a foul. Boydie had a couple of good runs up the left and from one of these he drove a cross into the Glens box, but there was no United man there to apply the finishing touch. Little was seen of the home team's famous double 'H' striking partnership of Halliday and Hamilton, Halliday was constantly caught offside, while Hamilton was just making up the numbers. The consenus among United fans was that Hamilton had a hangover and he did go off early in the second half, probably to get a 'hair of the dog' pickmeup. Lockhart looking suspiciously offside, almost made United pay for their missed chances when his shot over United keeper Paul Murphy cannoned off the crossbar. but United survived and went in at halftime trailing by a goal to nil and still well in the game.

Six minutes into the second half the game was up for United when Lockhart broke through our last line of defence and Gordon Simms sent him crashing to the ground. The referee flourished the red card and Simms had to go and I personally believe rightly so. His sacrifice proved in vain as Paul Murphy and his defence, not for the first time this season, failed to line the defensive wall up correctly. This allowed a direct line at the left hand side of the goal and Kyle Neill drove his shot unerringly at this spot and Murphy was beaten all ends up. With United two down and with only ten men, I thought we needed to bring on Gary Haveron to bolster our defence and Austen Friel to give us some pace up front. Manager Wright thought otherwise and instead pushed Darren Murphy into defence, putting Paul Brown onto the left side of midfield, again surely it would've been wiser deploying the left footed Kelbie in this role, but what do I know. Darren Lockhart was lucky to stay on the field, when after he had misplaced a pass, he cynically chopped the legs from Picking as he burst down the right wing, the referee instead flourished the yellow card, yet more inconsistent refereeing. United did finally make some changes, taking off Picking and bringing on Haveron and then taking off Paul Brown, who continues to disappoint and who mistook the fans loud ironic cheers, for cheers of appreciation, bringing on Friel in his place. United did mount a few attacks after this but despite forcing a couple of corners they didn't look like scoring. Scatesy did hit the crossbar with a rasping shot, but it was typical of our efforts all day long. Manger Wright brought on Lee Patrick for Aiden Watson but this made little or no difference as far as I could see. Paul Murphy made a good save late on to deny the Glens an undeserved third goal and the day was summed up for United as the seconds ticked away. Aarron Callaghan had a great run up the right, beating two Glens defenders with real skill and then after having done the hard part, sent his cross feebly behind for a goalkick. Referee McCourt played not a second of stoppage time in the second half despite the fact that there had been six substitutions, which alone means three minutes of added time, but I don't believe if he had played all night that we would ever have scored. So another trip to Belfast and United return home pointless and if that's not bad enough we were 'robbed' at the turnstiles, having to pay £9 for what must be the poorest view in local football. Surely it's high time the I.F.A. set a maximum charge and a minimum standard of facilities, at the Oval visitin fans haven't literally got a 'pot to piss in'. To make matters worse it's a hard ground to get points at, so it has nothing going for it at all!

P. Murphy 5 Aid Watson 6 MoM: Alb. Watson

Callaghan 6 Brown 5

Boydie 7 Kelbie 6

Scatesy 7 D. Murphy 7 Referee: A. McCourt 2

Alb. Watson 7 1st Sub: Haveron 6

Simms 7 2nd Sub: Friel 6

Picking 6 3rd: Sub: Patrick 6