Andy Pandy!

United's summer signing Andy Smith contributed to the throwing away of three points against the Coleraine Scum at the 'slum' here tonight. United had just clawed their way back from a two goal deficit, when they won a penalty and up stepped Smith to blast the ball miles over the crossbar. United with one change from their starting line-up from Saturday, Kelbie for McConnell, had started brightly and only Kevin Kelby knows why he chose to try and control a Mike Smith cross on his chest instead of heading it into the net, a bad miss. Then Andy Smith, hit a 'powder puff' shot straight at 'fat Davy' O'Hare, instead of blasting it into the net. United paid a heavy price for these two misses, when they were caught out by a ball out to Stephen Carson on the left wing and Mark Surgenor failed to close the winger down and he picked out Rory Patterson, who rifled the ball into the net, to put the 'Scum' one up. Referee Davey Malcolm had already shown his biased nature by cautioning United's Mark Surgenor for an innocuous challenge, but 3 minutes after the 'Scum' had taken the lead he gave a foul after a blatant 'dive' by a home player and Patterson scored his second goal from the resultant free kick, past the unsighted O'Neill. As if this wasn't bad enough he then ignored a blatant late tackle on United Captain Gary Haveron, who had to come off as a result of his injuries, with Aaron Stewart taking his place. The Scum had a goal rightly ruled out for offside, which brought me no end of pleasure I can tell you. United stuck gamely to their task but it was hard to see where they were going to get a break from as Malcolm continued to dish out the yellow cards to the Sky Blues while ignoring the 'rough house' tactics of the home team. Despite the United physio being on the field for a 'minute and forty seconds' tending to Gary Haveron, only one minute was added on at the end of the half. In this added minute Ormo managed to get a ball in, Kelby collided with the 'Scum's' central defender and when the ball broke to United's Aiden Watson he left 'Fat Davy' helpless with a crisp right foot volley into the top corner to reduce the deficit to 2-1. 'Fat Davey' remonstrated with the referee about the allowing of this goal so much that he got a caution, the first one for the home team.

Roy Walker changed things round slightly at the start of the 2nd half, moving Aid Watson inside and Taggart onto the wing. This didn't change things a lot so after 8 minutes he took Taggart off, with George Stewart replacing him and suddenly United began to look dangerous. George seems to know no way to play it than running straight at the opposition and it finally paid dividends for United when he found Andy Smith with a delightful pass down the right. Andy, like any good striker, made for goal but his shot though hard, looked to be 'bread and butter' for any keeper. However 'Fat Davey'isn't just any keeper and he usually commits at least one gaffe when we play the 'Scum' and today was to be no exception as 'the tub of lard' allowed the ball to squirm under his body and Kevin Kelby swept the ball into the net to send United fans into raptures. Four minutes later after a delightful through ball from Kelby Andy Smith was hauled down, when clean through by the 'tub' and referee Malcolm rightly pointed to the spot. When a goalkeeper as the last man commits this offence it's usually a straight red card or at the very least a caution, referee Malcolm did neither. With United fans ready to celebrate Andy Smith ballooned the ball over the bar and handed the initiative back to the home team. United still looked the most likely team after this setback although the 'Scum' did look dangerous on the break. The United manager took off Ormo, with Cushley taking his place but they failed to find the vital breakthrough and were made to pay heavily for Smith's benevolence when Patterson completed his hat-trick with a crisp half-volley from 18 yards which caught O'Neill well off his goal-line. United piled forward in a vain attempt to get something from the game but as usual their fans were left talking about the 'one that got away'. The old adage about penalties still rings true, 'whatever you do, make the keeper earn his money', in other words, always endeavour to hit the target. United's Andy Smith failed to do this and as a result United lost their 3rd game in a row and we're still rooted to the bottom of the table, too early to panic I know, but it's getting close!

O'Neill (6), M.Smith (7), Colligan (5), Surgenor (6), Haveron (6) (Sub: A. Stewart, 7), Taggart (5) (Sub: G. Stewart, 7), Aid Watson (7), Carson (6), Ormo (6) (Sub: Cushley, 6), A. Smith (6), Kelbie(6),

Man of the match: Aiden Watson