White Washed!

The conquering hero returned to the Showgrounds today in the shape of former manager Tommy Wright, who 'ran' away from the United job 18 months ago. Tommy's teams were never good to watch, he was a kick and rush man, but when things went right and we got a lenient ref, he sometimes came out on top. Today was no exception, as his team literally 'kicked' us off the park, aided and abetted by some extremely lenient refereeing by Keith Halliday.
The visitors committed at least a dozen fouls in the first half but the referee only showed one caution and he got it wrong as it should have been a a red card instead. Glenn Ferguson clearly elbowed United defender Albert Watson (or was it an accidental clash of heads), but the weak official merely cautioned the culprit.
United had their chances in the first half but three great saves from visiting keeper Matthews kept the scores level at halftime.
United manager Roy Walker had given a rare start to 2nd choice keeper Sean O'Neil and he almost embarrassed the manager when he made a complete horlicks of a back pass, slicing it for a corner, but luckily it came to nothing. On the stroke of halftime United were denied a penalty when from a corner kick Matthews punched United's Chris Ramsay instead of the ball, but referee Halliday gave a free to the visitors. The damage was done however as Ramsay had to be helped off and took no further part in the game.

David Cushley took Ramsay's place at the start of the 2nd half which meant United were playing with two wide men, Ormo and Cushley and as a result Lockhart and Anderson had to work twice as hard. United had a perfectly good goal disallowed 7 minutes into the 2nd period when McConnell timed his run onto a Cushley through ball only for the linesman to flag him offside when the visiting defence called. There's no way this official could've known as he was 10 yards behind the action, but he flagged anyway.
The whites were a better side in the this half and put United under severe pressure and our old malaise began to surface, not picking players up at set-pieces. Twice we got away with it when after O'Neill had saved a Ferguson header, our benevolent defence allowed ex-United striker Davitt Walsh a free header. We didn't learn from this gaffe and from another corner allowed Ferguson a free one which just shaved the crossbar. A goal for the visitors looked inevitable and 19 minutes into the half it duly arrived, when the United defence was caught by a through ball and Ferguson was on hand to blast the ball into the bottom corner.
Obviously a change was needed but manager Walker's response surprised us all, when he took off Anderson and brought on defender Surgenor in his place. Surely a better move would have been to push Anderson upfront and taking off Ormo, but maybe Roy was trying to keep the score down. Whatever he was trying to do the closest United came to scoring was when the ball fell to Cushley about 30 yards from goal, but Matthews not for the first time today was equal to the task as he pushed it for a corner. Lockhart gave us hope when he rose unchallenged but headed wide, while a move between Mike Smith and McConnell just came unstuck at the last moment.
Cushley had a great run down the right wing only to be cynically pulled down when clean through, an automatic red card, referee Halliday merely booked the culprit. The free kick came to nothing and this is a part of the game United will need to brush up on, or their slide down the league will continue at a gathering pace. Kelbie then spurned a chance to go for goal, looking for a pass instead and a McConnell header drifted harmlessly wide. United have no game next week due to the disastrous fixture planning of the I.F.A., so manager Walker and his men have a chance to get things sorted, please, oh please, don't waste that opportunity!

O'Neill (6), M. Smith (7), Colligan (7), Alb. Watson (7), Ramsay (7)(Sub: Cushley 6), Ormo (6), Anderson (6)(Sub: Surgenor 6), Lockhart (7), McConnell (6), Kelbie (6).

Man of the match: Lee Colligan