United Failure!
Ballymena’s big failing, not only in recent years I might add, has been their inability to put away the ‘so-called’ lesser teams. No team exemplifies this more than yesterday’s opponents, Limavady United. Before yesterday the two Uniteds had met on 3 occasions this season, with 2 draws and a win for Limavady the outcome and even though Ballymena had the lion’s share of possession yesterday, they should’ve been punished late on by their less illustrious opponents. With only 2 changes from last Saturday’s encounter with Linfield, Mark Picking in for the injured Gavin Melaugh and Scatesy taking the place of Lee Patrick, the Sky Blues looked uninterested from the outset. They created little during the first 45 minutes and in fact it was the visitors who were the hungrier team. The home defence looked a little shaky, but Paul Murphy in goal wasn’t tested during the first half and that was a relief for the home fans. United’s Gareth Scates was somewhat lucky to stay on the pitch after a reckless challenge on Limavady’s number 4, escaping with merely a caution from referee Steven Weatherall. The Limavady player was unable to continue and I foolishly though we might exploit the situation as they had lost a central defensive kingpin. Former Limavady striker Paul Brown, who has been rejuvenated of late, was given a chance to prove this point but missed an absolute ‘sitter’ for the home team midway through the half. Mark Picking and Callaghan combined down the right and Picking’s inch perfect cross found the unmarked Brown and he somehow missed the target with a free header from 8 yards out. Five minutes later he ‘missed’ once more with a free header from Picking’s in-swinging corner. This was about as good as it got for United during the opening period and it was a relief when the referee brought the half to an end.
United almost took the lead in the 53rd minute when Stuarty King cut in from the left, but his stinging right-foot shot was touched onto the crossbar by the impressive Michael Doherty in the visitor’s goal. Ballymena, despite almost complete dominance in this half failed to carve out a clear opening, although there were one or two doubtful offside decisions which went in the visitor’s favour. Midway through the half the United manager took off Picking and brought on former Limavady player Stephen Lowery. Picking had been poor enough, but I’m afraid Lowery was even worse and the match just looked like petering out to a draw. Limavady were dangerous during the odd breakaway and United were indebted to team Captain Albert Watson who kept a cool head when under pressure. United’s top scorer Kevin Kelbie was replaced by youngster Randal Reid with 10 minutes left and he seemed to inject some urgency into the home attack. Limavady were indebted to keeper Doherty who saved from point blank range when United’s Paul Brown found himself free on goal. One of the features of the second half for me was the number of times keeper Doherty found the far touch line with his clearances, almost as if he was trying to put the ball out of play. As I said earlier Limavady squandered the best chance of the game in the 91st minute when after good work by Ryan Semple their substitute screwed the pass wide with United keeper Murphy attempting to cover his goal. So the match ended in a scoreless draw and on this showing it’s hard to see how Ballymena can hope to push towards a possible 6th finish in the league and in fact look as if they might struggle to maintain their present 9th position. Their next 2 league fixtures are away to
P. Murphy 6 Aid Watson 6 MoM: Alb Watson
Callaghan 6 Brown 7
McClean 6 Kelbie 5
Scates 6 King 6 Referee: S. Weatherall 4
Alb Watson 7 1st Sub: Lowery 5
Kelly 6 2nd Sub: Reid 6
Picking 6
posted by SkyBlueSport @ 5:48 pm
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