Walker Dozes!

On a late summer's day at the Showgrounds maybe it was understandable that manager Roy Walker delayed his master stroke until the dying minutes of the game. The manager, like a lot of men up in years, was probably having an afternoon doze, why else would he delay a crucial substitution until the dying moments of the game. Someone in the crowd called to the manager to get Nathan McConnell on with 15 minutes remaining, only to be answered by a 'loud mouth', that, that, would be a waste of time , to which the former replied' was he (the loud-mouth), happy with a score of 2-0 to the visitors and that the present two strikers were pretty ineffective to put it mildly. United, could and should, have won this game at a canter, they forced at least a dozen corners, without ever forcing a save from visiting keeper Coleman and dominated the match completely, yet were undone by two defensive clangers. It's hard for me to fathom our manager's thinking, when Albert Watson is so obviously struggling, then why is Archie Stewart left on the bench? I'm led to believe that United took the field with an unchanged team to that which took all three points at Institute, I wasn't there you see, so I can't be completely sure. The United defence were ,surprise! Surprise! undone by a set-piece. A corner from the left, a 'free header' to an opposing player, one nil to the visitors, how many times have we witnessed that scenario in the last nine seasons, innumerable I'd say. Why this statistic hasn't been sorted by our last three managers, one of whom was allegedly an International goalkeeper, is beyond my comprehension. That goal came after 7 minutes and when United tried to hit back, the well 'oiled' Newry off-side trap, aided and abetted by a linesman who was seldom up with play, constantly thwarted United. Still United did create some openings and Lockhart saw a left-foot shot just clear the bar, when surely he should at least have made the keeper earn his money. Despite forcing three corners in succession United couldn't find the key to unlock their resolute defence. the closest they came was an Andy Smith pile-driver which shaved the cross-bar. In a rare attack Newry did create an opening and Nelson made a fine diving save. Soon after Lockhart found his name in the referee's book when he protested too vehemently about an elbow on central defender Surgenor, ignored by both referee and linesman. Halftime was reached with the visitors 2-1 ahead and home fans hoping for a 'new face' to kick-start their revival, but knowing it was unlikely.

The second half was almost a carbon copy of the first, with United pressing but having no luck in front of goal. On one occasion a Cushley cross eluded the keeper, but Kelbie's toe poke came off the post. With United, despite forcing several unfruitful corners, unable to find a breakthrough, manager Walker finally called on new signing George Stewart, but held him back 5 minutes, a strange decision, before replacing, a by then injured, Carson (but maybe Carson wasn't the original intended replacee). There followed a real bizarre incident when Lockhart burst through the middle and as he approached the penalty area he was hauled down by a Newry defender and in a follow-up melee, visiting keeper Coleman shoved United's Andy Smith to the ground. As Lockhart was clean through, the defender had to be red carded and the keeper also for violent conduct, the referee however decided to yellow card the defender while the keeper got off scot-free. Flash-back to the United/Crusaders game on August 22 when United keeper Sean O'Neill was red carded for a similar offence and the United players and fans felt hard done by on this occasion. From the resultant free kick the ball was driven against the visitors 'wall' which makes one wonder what the players work on in training, when they haven't a clue how to defend or attack, dead ball situations. With 17 minutes remaining the match was taken beyond United's reach when Chris Morgan was somehow able to wriggle past three defenders before slotting the ball past Nelson. After which seemed a long time since this incident the United manager finally awoke from his afternoon nap and decided to bring on another striker. Now we had reached that stage known colloquially 'as die dog or shite the licence', in other words the time for finesse was over. I expected, nay earnestly hoped for us to go with three strikers and go on all-out attack, but our manager merely replaced the tiring Andy Smith with the cumbersome Nathan McConnell. Then on almost the stroke of 90 minutes he took off Cushley and brought on Ormo, both these substitutions in my opinion came about 20 minutes too late, but in a rare bit of luck, McConnell scored with a header in the 91st minute. Try as they might United couldn't even manage another attack and they continued their dismal home league record, played 4, lost 4, thankfully only one of their next four games (which includes a County Antrim Shield 1/4 final), are at home!


Nelson (6), M. Smith (6), Surgenor (5), Alb Watson (5), Colligan (6), Lockhart (7), Carson (6) (Sub: G. Stewart,6),Taggart (6), Cushley (6) (Sub: Ormo, 5), A. Smith (5) (Sub: McConnell, 6), Kelbie (5)

Man of the match: Darren Lockhart