Scating Freely!

United manager Tommy Wright made three changes to his starting line-up from last Saturday, dropping King and Melaugh, with Gary Haveron and Mark Picking coming in while last weeks scorer, Fitzy, replaced the injured Kevin Kelbie. United, despite a good start found themselves a goal down after only 5 minutes, with the home team’s first real attack. Home midfielder, Eamon McCann, eluded United’s Aiden Watson in midfield and was allowed to scythe through the United defence before finding former Larne player Colm Kearney. Kearney then slipped the ball to Lewis Hamlin and he gave Murphy no chance from close range. The home team were rampant for a couple of minutes after this and young winger Ormond Okunaiya gave United left back Craig McClean a torrid time with his dribbling skills. United did finally manage to get a grip in midfield and almost equalised when a deep cross from Gary Haveron over the head of former United keeper Willie McFrederick fell to Paul Brown but his header only found the side net much to the chagrin of United’s fans. But United weren’t to be denied for long and with Garth Scates pulling the strings in midfield they got back on terms. Gary Haveron, wide on the left, laid the ball back to McClean and his deep cross fell to winger Picking who hammered the ball into the net to level the scores. That goal came in the 15^th minute and United fans were ‘cock a hoop’ and 2 minutes later they were delirious, when Garth Scates popped up on the left of the penalty box to hammer a crisp left foot shot past McFrederick to give his team a 2-1 lead. United had their tails up at this stage, but the home team were still dangerous on the break, aided and abetted by some strange decisions from referee Arnie Hunter. He harshly cautioned Aiden Watson for an innocuous foul on winger Okunaiya, one of four bookings for United players, while he allowed the Glenavon players to get off with loads of suspect tackles. Fitzy missed a glorious chance to put the game beyond doubt in the 25^th minute when he drove the ball straight at McFrederick when 'one on one' with the keeper. Despite creating a few more openings United couldn’t add to their tally and halftime was reached with them leading 2-1.

United continued where they left off in the first half by squandering half a dozen good openings, the worst of which was by Fitzy when he again failed to beat McFrederick from close range. Glenavon were looking a bit dangerous on the break and Hamlin almost got on the end of a long clearance, after slipping past United Captain, Albert Watson, but Murphy luckily got there first. Mark Picking beat McFrederick with a sharp shot but was unlucky to see his effort rebound off the post with Fitzy screwing the rebound wide, while at the other end Murphy made a good save from a pile driver from Hamlin, at the expense of a corner. With 20 minutes left manager Wright took off Fitzy and brought on Randall Reid, a straight striker for a striker, a bold move maybe or a foolish one. Fifteen minutes from the end, Hamlin out-sprinted Watson once more before taking a ‘blatant dive’ with referee Hunter falling for his ruse. Luckily for United he adjudged that the offence was committed outside the box, but he administered the red card to the United Captain, a harsh decision in my book, but not unexpected given the referee’s bias throughout the game. Luckily for United Hamlin drove the free kick straight at the United wall and the ball was cleared upfield. The United manager reacted to this sending off by first taking off big Paul Brown, with Thomas Wray taking his place and 2 minutes later bringing on Lee Patrick for Mark Picking. United were under a bit of pressure at this stage but Aaron Callaghan, who had moved to central defence and Simon Kelly both excelled during the final 15 minutes and kept Glenavon at bay. Their cause was helped somewhat when Garth Scates popped up once again, this time getting on the end of a Lee Patrick cross, to hammer the ball into the net for his second goal and United’s third. This goal clinched a ‘man of the match’ performance from the Killyleagh man and sealed the victory for the Sky Blues and it sets us up very nicely for the visit of Dungannon Swifts and ‘She’ Campbell on Thursday night, I personally can hardly wait!

Murphy 7 Aid Watson 7 MoM: Scates

Callaghan 7 Brown 7

McClean 6 Fitzy 6

Haveron 7 Scates 8 Referee: A. Hunter 3

Alb Watson 6 1^st Sub: Reid 7

Kelly 7 2^nd Sub: Wray 7

Picking 7 3^rd Sub: Patrick 7