Two Halves!

It's an old cliché I know, but still relevant just the same about football being a game of two halves. Never was this better illustrated than at the Oval tonight where the Sky Blues committed suicide in the first period and then turned the game on it's head by dominating the second. Only trouble was they were four goals behind and playing against 12 men, as referee Raymond Hall was definitely only seeing one way. United had a much changed line-up, with Tommy Wray replacing Craig McClean in the back four and Aaron Stewart switching to leftback. Mark Ward got the nod on the right and Liam Mullan got a rare start on the left. This left Melaugh and Haveron in centre midfield, a case of fitting one square peg in a round hole. Gary Haveron, in my opinion can only play two positions, central defence or wide left midfield, put him anywhere else and he's like the proverbial 'fish out of water'. Gavin Melaugh's form has been atrocious lately, but he needs to play with a 'tigerish' midfielder and his partner from last season, Garth Scates, has departed to pastures new and until we find him a new 'chum' he will continue to struggle. Kelbie and Walsh continued up front, but this time Walsh led the line, with Kelbie supposedly playing off him. United managed to hold out for 15 minutes and in fact took the game to the glens early on, but finally Scullion drifted past two 'make believe' tackles before firing into the bottom corner, brushing aside defender McDonnell with consummate ease as he tried to block his final approach. Nine minutes later the lead was doubled, when a dangerous cross by Hamilton was deflected into his own net via the boot of the unlucky Tommy Wray. Two minutes later Davitt Walsh was 'cleaned' in the box, but referee Hall waved play on, no surprise there I suppose. The Glens virtually wrapped up the points in the 28th minute as the United defence stopped when a home player was blatantly off-side, but referee Hall allowed play to continue and striker Halliday ran through unchallenged and deftly chipped the advancing O'Neill. United's attempts to get back in the game were foundering on the hard tackling Glens defence, but they seemed to have 'weathered' the Glens storm and with halftime approaching were still not out of the game at 3-0 down. Two incidents in this period of play summed up the biased refereeing decisions dished out by Raymond Hall, firstly United striker Kevin Kelbie was head-butted as he cushioned a header into Mullan's path, but the referee merely stopped play so the home player could get attention (actually there was clearly nothing wrong with him he was just trying to direct attention away from his foul and he succeeded in doing this), he then instructed them to play the ball back to our keeper, when we had been in possession on the edge of their box. As if to add insult to injury the perpetrator got off without even a 'talking to' never mind the mandatory yellow card. Then in the 43rd minute disaster struck, young United keeper O'Neill 'flaffed' at a corner kick and only succeeded in giving away another one at the other side. When this cross was driven in it brushed United captain Gary Haveron on the arm, dropped at Hamilton's feet and O'Neill distinguished himself with a fine stop. However it was to no avail, as referee Hall inexplicably pointed to the penalty spot, taking the visiting team completely by surprise. Up stepped defender Nixon to give O'Neill no chance with his spot-kick and give the home team a flattering halftime lead of 4-0.

United made a substitution at the start of the second-half, with defender Gav McDonnell, making way for Aiden Watson, which meant Gary Haveron switching to partner Albert Watson in central defence. The Glens seemed to be in the mood to steamroller United aside as they laid siege to their goal in a 5 minutes spell of pressure at the start of the second period. During this spell United Captain Gary Haveron, got hurt and was replaced by leftback Liam Hogan (the home teams announcer actually called him Horan), with Aaron Stewart switching into central defence with Watson. United actually came more into the game after this and Albert Watson came within a whisker of reducing the leeway when his header from a Mullan corner, hit the post with Morris in the Glens goal beaten, but of course the ball rebounded to safety. United weren't to be denied for long though and last years top scorer Kevin Kelbie, gave them some hope when he neatly sidestepped a heavy tackle to blast the ball into the top corner of the net. Could United make a fight of this I wondered and manager Walker took the bold step of substituting Liam Mullan, with top scorer Neal Teggart taking his place. United caused the home team a few anxious moments and had yet another 'cast iron' penalty denied them when striker Teggart burst between a defender and goalkeeper Morris before being tripped by the keeper but referee Hall merely gave a goal-kick. In the end United had to settle for yet another defeat, but there were some encouraging signs, but we've still a long way to go yet and a win is vital at home to Bangor on Saturday. Just a wee word about the viewing facilities for visiting fans at this game, they are to put it mildly pretty abysmal. If we sit in the so called visitors stand, we must look through netting wire onto a pitch that is extremely poorly lit, not definitely a good advertisement for our so called new league and to add insult to injury we had to pay £10 for the privilege, no value for money here. So come on I.F.A. don't just talk about improvements, get them bloody well done!


O'Neill 6 Ward 5 MoM: Stewart

Wray 6 Walsh 6

Stewart 7 Kelbie 6

Haveron 6 Mullan 5

Alb Watson 6 1st Sub: Aid Watson 6 Referee: R. Hall 2

McDonnell 5 2nd Sub: Hogan 6

Melaugh 6 3rd Sub: Teggart 6