Caught Napping!

The one thing United needed to avoid today at home to Linfield was a bad start, but they were caught out with only 4 minutes on the clock. Albert Watson failed to get a tackle on Glenn Ferguson and he played the ball into Oran Kearney's path and he sprinted through the flat footed United defence before planting the ball past United keeper Paul Murphy. United had began the game with a strange formation, with Mark Picking on the right-side of midfield and Simon Kelly at the centre of a 5 man midfield. This meant no place for the 'hard tackling' Gary Haveron, whose dogged determination was sadly missed, while second top goalscorer Davitt Walsh was left on the bench also. After going a goal down so early on United were in a 'backs to the wall' scenario for most of the first half and on the few occasions they did manage to break out of defence, the Linfield offside trap easily caught Kevin kelbie out. Linfield forced corner after corner without really troubling the United defence, but keeper Murphy was called on to save his team mates blushes when he somehow stopped a Thompson shot after the United defence had gone A.W.O.L. once more. United's task was not eased by a completely biased refereeing display from Adrian McCourt, when in any doubt he gave the decision to the visitors and demonstrated this when giving them a throw-in, when the ball clearly deflected off a visiting player. The only cheer for the home fans came when a long distance shot from Craig McClean cleared the Linfield crossbar. Somehow the Sky Blues held out until halftime and we all hoped for manager Wright to make a change or at least abandon his five man midfield ploy.

United took the field for the second half with the same team and the same formation and despite forcing the pace during the first 15 minutes of the half, couldn't get the vital breakthrough. During this spell Linfield's luck came to their rescue when a shot from United striker Kelbie hit keeper Alan Manus who knew little or nothing about the shot, but saved a certain goal. Linfield went on the attack again and Kearney protested his innocence to the referee when the whistle sounded, but the official had blown for an innocuous foul for the visitors, that only he had noticed, but Ferguson blasted the resultant free kick over the bar. Shortly afterwards there were signs of stirrings on the United bench but as usual it took several more minutes to get things organised. Before the change could be made Linfield made the game safe with a 2nd goal, yet another disaster for the United defence. A Linfield player was allowed to run right through the middle of the sluggish home midfield and was allegedly tripped by Watson on the edge of the box. Referee Adrian McCourt, who had given us nothing throughout the game, blew for a foul on the edge of the box and yellow carded the United Captain. From the resultant free kick former United player Oran Kearney bent the ball past the United wall to give Linfield a 2 goal lead. United finally made their substitution, with Walsh replacing Picking, but of course it was too little too late. United did however pull a goal back when Dean Pooley converted a Stuart King corner, but it was ruled out for some infringement or other. Garth Scates, a virtual passenger throughout the game also set up Davitt Walsh, but his shot was blocked as was Scates follow up effort. Linfield striker Glenn Ferguson took a blatant dive in the box, but referee McCourt, who had booked two United players for dissent ignored the infringement. In a last throw of the dice United took off Stuart King and Gavin Melaugh, bringing on Lee Patrick and young reserve player Lee Colligan. These substitutions had little or no impact and in fact Linfield added two more goals as the United defence wilted again. Firstly the United markers went missing at a corner allowing substitute Tim Mouncey a free header after 88 minutes and then a poorly hit back pass by Dean Pooley was chased down by Linfield striker Thompson and Paul Murphy blotted his copybook, when instead of 'hoofing' the ball into the stand he played it against the striker and he was left with the simple task of slotting the ball into the empty net. In the added time Mouncey headed a fifth goal, but luckily this was ruled out for offside, although it was the best move of the match. This defeat means the Sky Blues have failed to win since beating Glentoran on New Year's Day and in fact in their last 7 games have lost 4 and drawn 3, it's time I think to stop the rot!

Murphy 7 Scates 5 MoM: Murphy

Wray 6 Melaugh 5

McClean 6 Kelbie 6

Kelly 6 King 5 Referee: A. McCourt 3

Watson 6 1st Sub: Walsh 6

Pooley 6 2nd Sub: Colligan 6

Picking 6 3rd Sub: Patrick 5