No Goal!

Firstly let me state that United got what their pathetic display deserved yesterday, 'sweet F.A., that said they were cruelly done by referee Stephen Weatherall and the linesman at the Shore Road end of the ground. How this linesman missed 5 Crusaders forwards a good yard offside midway though the half beggars belief and then when the resultant attack led to three successive corners he 'missed' the 'blatant' foul on United keeper Sean O'Neill, although referee Weatherall did rightly rule this goal out. But the 'meanest thing' they did was to give the home side a goal when the ball never broke the 'plane' of the goal-line. On such decisions are matches decided and this goal arrived in the 44th minute after United had hung in desperately only to be undone by two 'cheating' men in black. United manager Roy Walker, deprived of the services of winger Mark Picking through injury, chose to start with Kelbie up front and Davitt Walsh on the right wing, this was 'bread and butter' to a Crues defence led by the dominant Davey Coates, a United target during last January's transfer window. The midfield of Aiden Watson, Gavin Melaugh, Gary Haveron and the ineffective David Cushley (who appears to be only a shadow of his former self), were completely devoid of ideas and spent most of the match chasing shadows. Young Sean O'Neill kept his place in goal, while last Tuesday's back four kept their place also. Former Captain Albert Watson's frailties as a right back were cruelly exposed and he was lucky not to pick up an early caution for a 'blatant' holding offence. Both Albert and Craig McClean were targeted by the Crues midfield and were found wanting, as was young centre-back Aaron Stewart. The only bright spot in an overworked United defence was defender Gav McDonnell, who was head and shoulders above his fellow defenders and the rest of his team-mates. But one man cannot do it all and United were finally undone by a goalkeeping error from young O'Neill and an inept piece of refereeing by Stephen Weatherall and his assistant. Albert Watson, who had picked up a 'harsh' booking for an innocuous foul, not for the first time got caught out of position and when his opponent hit a tame shot goalwards young O'Neill, for reasons known only to himself, chose to try and stop it with his feet, instead of smothering the ball with his body. The ball ballooned up in the air, bounced inside the six-yard box about a foot from the goal-line and a Crues player tried to hit it but missed it completely and then United fans and players stared in disbelief as the linesman signalled the ball had crossed the goal-line. Referee Weatherall sprinted back to the centre circle, with a smug grin on his face and United were a goal behind. Probably the most galling thing of all was the 'meek' way the United team seemed to resign themselves to the fact that it was a goal instead of protesting vehemently to the officials. Where oh where has the passion gone, have they resigned themselves to their fate already, for the sake of us fans, I hope not. When the halftime whistle sounded we hoped our manager would be able to rouse our team and get them to come out fighting for the second period.

Four minutes into the second half the United defence went asleep once more and the oldest man on the pitch, Crues forward David Rainey was given all the time in the world to make the score 2-0 to the home team. Soon after the United manager rang the changes, taking off the passenger Cushley (where has your talent and enthusiasm gone David I wonder) and the unlucky Walsh, with Taggart and Ward taking their place, but it made little or no difference to United's attack. I must make a mention here for the 'umpteenth time' about United's complete lack of ideas from set-plays, either defending or attacking. In the first half young Cushley given the task of corner kick taker and who was so deadly last year, messed up continually, his first effort was a daisy cutter, which troubled no-one and his second was easily dealt with by the Crues defence, something surely has to be done about this, if I can see it, why not the United coaches I ask myself? In a last throw of the 'dice' (some chance of us gambling on anything), Aaron Stewart made way for Liam Mullen and never a more reluctant player have I ever seen, it was as if the ball was red hot, he couldn't get rid of it quick enough. He even tried to hit the houses across the road from the ground with one cross. Then we had the 'histrionics' of the Crusaders team as United tried vainly to get back into the game, firstly a player lay down in his own penalty area like he had been felled by an axe. He looked like he could barely wave a finger (although he was able to made the 'wanking sign' to United fans, strangely missed by both referee and linesman), while being able to walk unaided off the ground. Then Gary Haveron was accused, falsely, of making contact with keeper Keenan, when the keeper 'flaffed' at a cross before colliding with one of his own players. Once again this looked like a case for the stretcher, but once more it was only a 'bluff' as he wasn't injured at all. These two stoppages added at least three minutes to the time, we had six substitutions, 3 for each team, yet only 3 minutes in total were added at the end. One wonders why they bother with a 4th official, you rarely can see the board showing the subs numbers and they don't really add the real stoppage time on anyway. Having said that,if they had played all night United couldn't have scored, oh and I almost forgot, Wardy missed his customary 'sitter', blasting the ball over the bar from 3 yards out, in a 'clearance' that any defender would've been proud of, but he was trying to score, wasn't he? Hopefully they hadn't themselves backed to lose two nil, although it would in fact go a long way to accounting for this lacklustre performance. Keeper O'Neill redeemed himself, with a couple of good stops late on, one from a fiercely hit free kick which was bound for the top corner of the net, which should mean he keeps his place for the trip to the Oval next Tuesday night, for the game postponed at the start of the season. Oh and a word about Kevin Kelbie,who costs United a tidy sum each week in airfares and wages, he looks like only a shadow of himself also, summed when his marker messed up on one occasion and Crues defender Coates, 15 yards further away than Kevin, easily beat him to the ball, last season Kevin would have stuck it in the net before Coates could've moved or at least forced the keeper to make a save. United manager Roy Walker will have to think long and hard about his team selection for the Oval game as few of this team look worthy of a place on this display in my opinion!


O'Neill 6 Aid Watson 5 MoM: Gav McDonnell

Alb Watson 5 Walsh 5

McClean 5 Kelbie 5

Haveron 6 Cushley 5 Referee: S. Weatherall 1

Stewart 5 1st Sub: Taggart 5

Gav McDonnell 7 2nd Sub: Ward 5

Melaugh 4 3rd Sub: Mullan 4