Late Lapse!

Not for the first time this season the Sky Blues let 3 points slip from their grasp late in the game. At least this time it was only 2 points thrown away, as they recorded their first draw of this season's campaign. When former United player Stuarty King (or is it Queen), punted a hopeful ball into the box it looked to be sailing into United keeper Dwayne Nelson's arms. Sadly Nelson, who had pulled of a couple of good saves earlier, dropped the ball and Glenavon snatched a draw from the jaws of defeat, a galling result for the small band of United supporters. United manager Roy Walker had only made one change from his starting line-up of last Saturday, with joint top scorer David Cushley replacing Ormo. That meant a place on the bench for Kevin Kelbie which leaves him woefully short of match fitness. United started well with McConnell and Cushley linking up with some nice play, without troubling the 'giant' Tuda Murphy in the home goal. When the home team did manage to attack they found the young United defence rock solid, ably backed up by keeper Dwayne Nelson. Referee Mark Courtney was his usual ineptness as he seemed content to issue stern warnings to home defenders who made no attempt to play the ball. But even his patience finally snapped when midfielder Harper viciously scythed down United's Lee Colligan after he had dispossessed him.
There was a strange incident midway through the half when after United had won a free kick in the opposition's half, United's Andy Smith tangled with his team-mate, Mark Surgenor. Referee Courtney told both players to calm down and that seemed to do the trick. Soon after Surgenor was penalised in one of those incidents which referee's tend to give differing decisions for. I refer of course to when a player makes no attempt to go for the ball and the defender jumps over him to get it. The referee deemed it a foul by the United player on this occasion, but 10 minutes later when an opposing defender jumped over a static McConnell, ignored the incident completely. Mike Smith delivered two excellent corners for United but no forward could get on the end of them and as a result the score remained 0-0 at halftime.

Eight minutes into the 2nd half United got their noses in front when McConnell laid the ball off to Cushley and his right-foot shot from 25 yards was pushed round the post by home keeper Murphy. From the resultant corner Archie placed a firm header into the net, his first senior goal for the club, hopefully the first of many. Unfortunately the lead only lasted five minutes as Surgenor allowed King to get a cross in and Molloy slid in at the far post to level the scores. Andy Smith missed a sitter soon afterwards when he broke clear with McConnell alongside him but his wild shot didn't even trouble the home keeper. That was in the 61st minute and three minutes later after a neat build-up Cushley forced another good save from Murphy with a 20 yard shot. From the resultant corner the big keeper dropped the ball but gleefully dived on it as the United players looked on. At the other end Nelson pulled off a tremendous save from Molloy's free kick. Straight up the field and Andy Smith latched onto a mishit back pass but failed to find McConnell in the middle. Andy was replaced soon after with Kevin Kelbie taking his place and he (Andy) soon disappeared into the dressing rooms. United had a let-off when their defence failed to clear a through ball and as Nelson advanced from his goal Molloy hit a tremendous shot which crashed off the crossbar into Nelson's grateful arms. The ball was cleared up-field and McConnell held it up before exchanging a one-two with Mike Smith and then delivering the ball into the box for Smith to plant it in the net. Was that enough I wondered with 18 minutes left to play, would we hold out for another 3 points.
The United manager seemed to think so as he took off Cushley and brought on Carson but we shrunk back into defence as a result. We were under the 'cosh' for most of the remainder of the game but did manage a couple of breaks. Firstly Mike Smith spurned a great chance to wrap up the points when he side-footed an effort over the bar after good work by Lockhart and McConnell and then McConnell forced a good save from Murphy after a Kelbie flick on, with Smith driving the ball into the side netting. Kelbie also wasted a good opportunity when after a break down the left he failed to find big Nathan who had a free run on goal. The United defence finally cracked when a harmless King cross was dropped by Nelson and the rest as they say was history. United did manage an attack in stoppage time but couldn't find the killer blow. Deep into injury time Nathan was replaced by Ormo, but I doubt whether he even got a kick at the ball as the match finished all square.

Nelson (6), Surgenor (6), Colligan (7), Ramsay (6), Archie (7) M. Smith (8) Anderson (7), Lockhart (7), Cushley (7) (Sub: Carson 6), A. Smith (5)(Sub: Kelbie 6), McConnell (8) (Sub: Ormo 6).

Man of the match: Mike Smith