Cold Comfort!

Ballymena left Solitude today with the knowledge that they had played their part in a very good match, played on easily the worst surface imaginable, but unfortunately they left it pointless. United began with only one change to their starting line-up in Tuesday night's cup loss, Davitt Walsh, in instead of Gary Haveron. What a start they made too, with barely 5 minutes on the clock, Garth Scates inswinging corner was volleyed into the net by the unmarked Kevin Kelbie. That was a fortunate start, but from then on 'Lady Luck' deserted the Sky Blues and referee Mark Courtenay had a real stinker as well. The referee did however start out well, cautioning Chris Scannel for a blatant dive in the box and his strike partner George McMullan for dissent. Tragedy struck for the visitors soon after, when new signing Mike Ward got injured and had to leave the field, with Mark Picking taking his place. Five minutes later, Scannel 'fell over' in the box once more and referee Courtenay decided this time it was a penalty, a complete miscarriage of justice. Up stepped former United player Davey McAlinden to take the penalty, the ball struck Murphy in the chest and as he dived on the loose ball, big Davey came in over the top catching the keeper with an horrendous tackle. This is the sort of tackle which referee's in England are trying to stamp out, but obviously as far as Mark Courtenay's concerned it's fine as he didn't even caution the culprit, much to everyones amazement. Murphy was able to continue after treatment but he was badly shaken and Cliftonville tested him to the full. First he pushed a shot round the post and then tipped another effort over the bar. But United, whose defence it has to be said struggled in the heavy conditions, were defending desperately and a score looked imminent. From a corner on the left, Stuart King just managed to get a header over the bar with Murphy beaten. The goal when it came owed a lot to our keeper's lack of mobility as he allowed himself to be beaten as home defender O'Hara challenged him for a flicked on corner. United had come close to scoring themselves just before this setback, but Kelbie's header had hit the post and dropped into home keeper Connelly's grateful arms. United seemed to have taken the lead just before halftime, when after Kelbie sped to the byline, his cross was met by Walsh who headed it into the net, only to have the score ruled out for a doubtful offside. From our jaundiced view behind the far goals it was hard to tell, but Kelbie did appear to pull the ball back and it was hard to see how Walsh could've been offside, but the goal was ruled out. This meant the score at halftime was 1-1 and I was still hopeful as United were well in the game.

The home team stepped up the pressure in the second half, but the United back four held firm and we seemed to have weathered the storm. With 56 minutes on the clock McClean found Kelbie on the left flank and Kevin drew his marker before laying the ball into Walsh's path. The Letterkenny man sprinted into the penalty box and as he was about to shoot, he was 'cleaned' by home defender O'Hara with a tackle from behind, a cast iron penalty. But much to my surprise, Mister 'pathetic' Courtenay waved play on and as if to add insult to injury the home team broke upfield and as the United defence hesitated, Mark Holland diverted the ball past the hapless Murphy to give his team the lead. I thought to myself there's no way we can get back in this match now, as it seemed to be just one of those days when everything went against us. But this United team don't know when they're beaten and back they came again and put the home team under some pressure. They won a corner on the right, but as the ball came over they didn't attack it, despite 'me' shouting my head off for them to pile the bodies in and their keeper had an easy catch. United continued to press and they won another corner on the right again and this time they did attack it and keeper Connelly punched the ball against Tommy Wray and it bounced into the net to level the scores. It was no more than United deserved I thought, but from then on it was a back to the walls defensive action for them. United keeper Paul Murphy played a major part in keeping the scores level, ably backed up by left back Craiggers McClean and it looked like United were going to salvage a deserved point. In fact they almost took the lead but Garth Scates could only head over when he got on the end of a Picking cross. When the 90 minutes were up the 4th official signalled 3 extra minutes and I thought we should've made a substitution at this stage, bringing on Gary Haveron to help out our beleaguered defence. But our manager decided to go with the personnel he had and then in the 92nd minute disaster struck. A harmless looking shot from distance seemed to be covered by our keeper, but the ball bounced just in front of him and went over his despairing dive, to put the home team 3-2 up. Despite the referee playing another 2 minutes there was no way back for our team this time and they surrendered their unbeaten league run which had lasted since October last year. I felt gutted at the finish and I'm sure the players felt bad also, but in the end, we just had to grin and bear it!


Murphy 7 Melaugh 6 MoM: Murphy

Wray 6 Ward 6

McClean 7 Kelbie 7

Scates 6 King 6 Referee: M. Courtenay 1

Watson 6 Walsh 6

Kelly 6 1st. Sub: Picking 6