Sneaking Through!

United are in the next round of the cup and barring a major upset and these never happen to us (I’m joking of course), we should be almost a certainty for the quarter finals. But back to yesterday’s game, as intimated in Sky Blue Sport, Tommy made just one change to his starting line-up, with Randal Reid coming in for the injured Fitzy and Gavin Melaugh getting a place on the bench. Tommy wouldn’t be drawn on the absence of Paul Brown, who let’s face has been a bit of a disappointment since his arrival at United, when I hinted that he, Tommy, maybe didn’t want him cup tied. Boydie it appears is still carrying a hamstring injury so young David Cushley was on the bench, alongside Melaugh and Austen Friel. United playing against the stiff breeze started brightly enough and whether by accident or design gave goalkeeper Paul Murphy a couple of early back passes which he dealt with easily enough. The Welders were put under some early pressure and despite United forcing a couple of corners the junior team survived quite easily. United on the other hand were caught out by a ball played behind their defensive line, not for the first time in recent games I might add, but luckily none of the visitors got the vital touch. With 15 minutes on the clock the United defence was undone from a corner kick and they all stood and watched as the ball broke to a visiting forward, who somewhat unluckily miskicked and the ball trickled into the grateful arms of keeper Murphy. United put the visitors under pressure and a Kelbie header was cleared off the line for a corner. Mark Picking’s corner was helped over the bar by the welder’s defence as it dropped invitingly in the penalty area for yet another corner. When Stuarty King delivered from the other side, the ball was partially cleared to Lee Patrick, who picked out United Captain Albert Watson close to the goal-line and he found the net with Randal Reid making sure. The United fans’ celebrations were short lived as the linesman’s flag ruled the goal out, presumably for offside, I’d like to see that on the T V but probably won’t get the chance. The Welders did conjure up another half chance before halftime, but United kept a firmer grip on them for the remainder of the half.

In the second half the wind seemed to have calmed a bit, but was still aiding the home team. Lee Patrick and Gareth Scates were beginning to exert some control in midfield and Patrick shot over the bar from just outside the box. United had their tails up at this stage and a score looked imminent and sure enough it came. After good work by Patrick and Picking, the ball fell to Scates and he drilled a low shot from the edge of the box, which hit the inside of the post on it’s way into the net, with visiting keeper Fox, well beaten. That goal came after 56 minutes and United and their fans greeted this goal with the wild elation it deserved and I settled back to watch us put the junior team to the ‘sword’. Alas it never happened, although we had plenty of chances. Firstly Stuart King, what a frustrating player he is, brilliant as a sub against the Glens, but back to mediocrity in the two games since, drilled a shot wide of the target, with only the keeper to beat. Then a Kelbie header went inches wide, while Reid and Callaghan combined well down the right but the final pass was abysmal. Midway through the half Tommy Wright took off Randal Reid, with Austen Friel taking his place. Friel has still to open his United goalscoring account from open play, his one strike so far coming from the penalty spot. He’ll never get a better chance than he did in this match; firstly he tracked Kelbie, as the United marksman went on a typical run down the left flank, but failed to pick out the unmarked Friel shooting across goal himself. Then after Kelbie had controlled the ball on his chest it fell to Friel who raced through unchallenged and with the keeper rooted to his goal-line blazed the ball wide of the target. These two missed opportunities almost proved fatal, when Paul Murphy’s woes returned to haunt him with five minutes to go. The United keeper came out for a through ball and instead of ‘hoofing’ it into the 3^rd row of the visiting stand, merely played it down the wing for a Welder’s forward. Luckily for United the home defence recovered and even though the ball went for a corner, the defence dealt adequately with it. The United manager took off Picking, with new signing Melaugh and almost one of his first contributions was to take the ball to the corner flag, in an attempt to ‘kill’ time. The United fans weren’t best pleased about this move as a cross looked the far better option. But our fears were allayed as the home team held out for a slender, but unimpressive victory. The United team came off to what can best be described as polite applause and hopefully they know that they must improve greatly on this performance if this season is not to be yet another big disappointment. The good news is that the ‘gods’ have been kind to them once more, with a tie against Amateur league opposition and even though they were drawn away from home, the tie should be switched to the Showgrounds. But before then United need to get their ‘A’ game into motion, or face a backlash from their disgruntled fans!

P. Murphy 5 Patrick 6 MoM: Scates

Callaghan 5 Reid 5

McClean 5 Kelbie 6

Scates 7 King 5 Referee: S. Weatherall 4

Alb Watson 6 1^st Sub: Friel 5

Haveron 5 2^nd Sub: Melaugh 6

Picking 6