Ugly Win!

Ballymena have hauled themselves up into joint sixth in the Carnegie Premier league with this 'ugly' victory over bottom club Limavady United. United, as predicted in Sky Blue Sport, made one change to their starting line-up from last week, Stephen Lowry retaining his place as Mark Picking is still injured. To say that United were not impressive today was to make a gross understatement, but they were also it must be conceded quite clinical and converted three of five chances which came their way, taking all three points in the process. Limavady, who for once brought some fans with them,about 25 or so, played all the football, but luckily for the home team they failed miserably in the last third of the pitch. In fact the closest they came to breaching the United defence was when Simon Kelly conceded a corner midway through the half. United took an undeserved lead after 25 minutes when Davitt Walsh latched onto a long clearance and beat the advancing keeper with a well placed shot for his 9th goal of the season. Would this strike give the Sky Blues some impetus I wondered, but no, they just went back into their shell, looking for all the world like a team who were happy to be leading by a solitary goal. The cold wind penetrated the home stand and United fans were content to wait for their halftime burger, as the fayre on the pitch was anything but exciting. Just when it seemed as if one goal was all we were going to see, Davitt Walsh produced a bit of magic on the by-line, before squaring the ball to Stephen Lowry and he crashed the ball into the net for his second goal in successive games, to give the home team a two goal lead. This goal came after 42 minutes and referee McFadden blew up 4 minutes later and United went in leading by a 2-0 scoreline.

Limavady, with the wind at their backs in the 2nd period, laid siege to the United goal and it seemed only a matter of time before they would get the vital breakthrough. Time and time again the United defence failed to clear their lines properly and during this spell Garth Scates became a virtual passenger in the home midfield. United did manage a rare break 12 minutes into the 2nd half and Craig McClean, after a mazy run played the ball into Gavin Melaugh's path. The former Glentoran midfielder managed somehow to put the ball over the bar when it looked easier to score, a bad miss. I personally thought this miss would be costly as the visitors were finding too many holes in the home defence, aided and abetted by a linesman who missed at least 3 blatant offsides. But the United defence, under the steadying influence of Watson, Kelly and keeper Murphy held firm and Gavin Melaugh made up for his earlier miss, when he drifted past the visitor's defence, before setting up Kevin Kelbie, who fired in United's third goal. This goal came after 75 minutes and the match was over from that point. Manager Wright rang the changes after this, taking off Scates, with Lee Patrick coming on and then Walsh made way for Fitzy. In a last throw of the dice youth player Stephen McNeill replaced Stephen Lowry but United were unable to add to their tally and had to content themselves with a 3-0 victory. It was a strange game in many ways, made even stranger by the fact that only one physio was called for during the game and that was in injury time, I wonder if that was indicative of the effort put in by both teams or am I being too harsh? At the end of the day we won and that's all that matters, as the saying goes, 'a win is a win', so let's have some more!


Murphy 7 Scates 5 MoM: Walsh

Callaghan 6 Walsh 8

McClean 7 Kelbie 7

Haveron 6 Melaugh 7 Referee: P. McFadden 5

Watson 7 1st Sub: Patrick 6

Kelly 7 2nd Sub: Fitzy 6

Lowry 7 3rd Sub: McNeill 6