Powder Puff!

When United finished their difficult start to the league campaign, they had nine games left to play to reach the halfway stage in the league, some of which on paper were fairly easy and some of which were difficult. After three relatively easy games we encountered our first difficult one today when Dungannon Swifts visited the Showgrounds, as usual we failed to take advantage of the situation and that in my opinion is indicative of Tommy Wright's reign at the Showgrounds, so far. We outplayed Dungannon today, but and I stress the word 'but', we failed to press home our advantage and the two points dropped today could come back to haunt us in the latter stages of this campaign. United were forced to make one change to their starting line-up, with Johnny Flynn replacing the injured Simon Kelly in central defence. United started brightly and Stephen Lowry came within inches of keeping up his scoring record, after jinking his way through the visitor's defence, but unfortunately his 'cross cum shot' failed to find the target. United, who were attacking their favourite goals at the Fisherwick end of the ground kept up the pressure during the first period and a goal looked certain. Good work down the right by Lowry and Walsh forced a corner but only Kevin Kelbie knows how he missed with a free header from Craig McClean's inswinger, a bad miss indeed. United had a let-off when Albert Watson completely miskicked when under no pressure, giving away a fruitless corner, but this was well evened up when former player Shea Campbell also completely miskicked, which brought the biggest cheer of the day by far. Garth Scates, who had a day he'll want to forget, blasted a free kick miles over the bar from 25 yards and proved to me personally that United have no free kick strategy whatsoever. Five minutes before the half United did almost ironically succeed with a free kick when Craig McClean hooked the ball in and former United keeper, Dwayne Nelson, saved Flynn's point blank header at the expense of a corner. United stood and watched as Nelson then flapped at McClean's inswinger and then stood back and allowed the keeper to recover the ball. Halftime was reached with the score at 0-0, but I thought surely the manager must see that Scates was a passenger and that he would replace him.

United took the field for the second half with the same team and as luck would have it Scates was given a glorious chance to be the hero seven minutes into the half. Stephen Lowry played a glorious ball into the midfielder's path and with the goal at his mercy he somehow failed to find the target. Even this horrendous miss failed to make the manager act and he had the personnel on the bench to go with many permutations but he chose to do nothing. United appeared to go into their shell after this and took on the mantle of a team playing for a draw. Kevin Kelbie should've won United a penalty when he was pulled down well inside the box by Swift's player Johnny Montgomery, who should've been sent off or at least cautioned for this offence as he was the last man, but referee Ball flourished no card, hopefully the fact that Montgomery had already been booked had no reflection on his decision. As if to add insult to injury United were awarded an in-direct free kick, outside the box, how the referee arrived at this decision escapes me. With 15 minutes left there was at last activity on the subs bench and it evoked the second biggest cheer of the day, She (A), Campbell was substituted by the visitors. Five minutes later the United manager took off top scorer Davitt Walsh and brought on Randal Reid. Was this just a cosmetic exercise I wondered, admittedly Walsh wasn't at his best, but he was well ahead of United's worst performer, Scates. Dungannon to their credit surged forward and United keeper Murphy rescued his side with a good save from McAree. United had to endure 4 minutes of stoppage time and were lucky to escape when McAllister was hauled down inside the box by United Captain Albert Watson, yet another stonewall penalty. The referee's decision on this occasion was, surprise! surprise!, an in-direct free kick outside the box, but on this occasion he did caution the United Captain and rightly so, as he was the last man. Justice was done in the end and the match ended all square, but I feel Dungannon were the happier team at the finish. On the plus side United have gone four games undefeated and for the 2nd week in succession they've had a clean sheet, but I can't stop thinking it should've have been so much more!

Murphy 8 Lowry 6 MoM: Murphy

Callaghan 5 Scates 4

McClean 7 Walsh 6

Haveron 6 Kelbie 7 Referee: A. Ball 4

Alb Watson 8 Melaugh 7

Flynn 5 Sub: Reid 6