Ugly Victory!

Three points were vital for the Sky Blues today and that’s what they got, but they almost threw it away right at the end with some sloppy defending. With only one change from last week’s starting 11, Gavin Melaugh taking over in centre midfield for Lee Patrick and Scates on the bench alongside, Fitzy and Lowery, United were very slow out of the starting blocks. In fact the early action concerned referee Alan Black and his penchant for booking United players. Firstly it was Gavin Melaugh, who needlessly kicked out a Dungannon player after the ball had gone. The referee in fact missed this incident but had it pointed out to him by the 4^th official and promptly cautioned the United midfielder. He then cautioned Stuart King for what best can be described as an innocuous tackle, before sending the player to the near touchline to receive treatment for a blood injury. This meant that the United Physio had to run round almost half of the outside of the pitch and when King went to meet him the referee’s assistant drew the ref’s attention and he told him no. This meant United were down to 10 men for about 8 minutes while Stuarty received attention. Shortly after he returned the referee again sent him to the touchline as he was still bleeding and he was substituted at this stage with Stephen Lowery taking his place. The visitors on the other hand were allowed to get ‘away with’ over the top tackles by the referee, which was in such contrast to his treatment of the home players. Dungannon were the livelier of the two teams, although they appeared to get themselves in a tangle at the back on the odd occasion. United keeper Paul Murphy rescued his side with a good save from a goal bound shot, in the Swift’s best attack. The first half was drawing to a conclusion when Kevin Kelbie was fouled by being elbowed about 10 yards inside the visitors half, no action taken against the culprit. From Craig McClean’s free-kick, former United keeper Dwayne Nelson came out to gather the ball, misjudged it and Albert Watson cushioned a header to striker Paul Brown, who headed into the net for his 3^rd goal in the last 4 games. The ironic thing was that United had scored this goal when they were down to 10 men, as Kelbie hadn’t returned after being treated for injury.

The second half was as boring as the first but I got the impression that United just had to wait for the visitors to mess up once more and present them with another goal. The visitors for their part seemed devoid of ideas although their main striker was giving United Captain Albert Watson a few headaches and I was a little concerned about this. With 70 minutes on the clock United were presented with another opening when Paul Brown charged down an attempted clearance from a Swifts defender and burst through on goal. As Dwayne Nelson advanced towards him the big striker unselfishly squared the ball to Kelbie and he had the simple task of shooting into the empty net. United manager Tommy Wright took off Brown and Picking at this point, with Scates and Fitzy taking their place. Despite United having almost complete domination at this stage they failed to take advantage and Aiden Watson missed badly when put through after good work by Fitzy and Melaugh, blazing his shot wide from six yards. This was almost a costly miss as Dungannon were given a lifeline when from a corner a header found the net through a crowded goalmouth. Kevin Kelbie then spurned another glorious chance when he burst through the static Swifts defence only to hit a weak shot straight at Nelson. At the other end United keeper Paul Murphy pushed a Rory Hamill shot up in the air and then caught it before it crossed the goal-line, a lucky break for the Dundalk man. With one minute of normal time remaining he was even luckier when he was left flatfooted by a shot which struck his left-hand post before bouncing into his arms. United survived the 3 minutes of added time for a pleasing if somewhat undeserved victory. Hopefully this is the first of many victories against the so called lesser teams and sets us up nicely for the visit of Linfield in the cup next Saturday. But if United are to progress in the cup they’ll require a vast improvement on today’s showing and it’s up to our management to help them make that improvement!

P. Murphy 6 Melaugh 6 MoM: Kelly

Callaghan 6 Brown 7

McClean 6 Kelbie 6

Aid Watson 7 King 6 Referee: A. Black 3

Alb Watson 7 1^st Sub: Lowery 7

Kelly 7 2^nd Sub: Scates 6

Picking 6 3^rd Sub: Fitzy 6