Kelbie Strikes!

There was one big difference between ourselves and first division club Ballinamallard today and star striker Kevin Kelbie was that big difference. They may have scored with a spectacular free kick, but Kelbie's hat-trick, was enough to blow them away. United manager Roy Walker made two changes to his starting line-up of Tuesday night, with Gavin Taggart replacing veteran Darren Lockhart who was given a well earned rest and Cushley coming in for the ineligible Gary Muir. United started off with an immediate attack, not normal for us I know, but I thought to myself 'we really mean business here' and when we took the lead after 14 minutes I was totally convinced. Mike Smith and Ramsay combined well down the right and when the cross came in there was Sparky Surgenor to slot home, scoring his second goal in as many matches.

I was quite hopeful at this stage that we would go on and put the game to bed but the Ballin boys had other ideas. Referee Turkington adjudged that Albert had fouled a visiting player and with the 30 yard free kick Cathay Beacom's shot flew into the top corner of the net, beating Nelson all ends up. That levelled the scores at one apiece with 25 minutes gone and 8 minutes later United nosed in front once more when Kelbie got on the end of a Mike Smith cross to hammer the ball into net. Despite dominating the play United couldn't increase their lead, epitomised by a Haveron free kick which the goalkeeper managed to parry and a Cushley shot which cleared the crossbar. Well at least we were ahead at halftime and I was hopeful we'd step up a gear after halftime.

One minute into the 2nd period United made the game practically safe, when Captain Gary Haveron got on the end of a Mike Smith corner to drill the ball into the net. Kelbie then notched his second of the game in the 57th minute and I thought to myself that's that. Three minutes later the visitors won a corner and brought on their sub Quigley before taking it. Obviously our defence didn't pick up on this as Quigley waltzed unmarked into our penalty box before planting a header past the hapless Nelson to make the score 4-2 in our favour. The United manager was rather annoyed to say the least but the Sky Blues eased his and our concerns by restoring the 3 goal cushion almost immediately.

Kelbie danced into their penalty box only to go down under a robust challenge and referee Burnside pointed to the penalty spot. Kelbie left no-one in doubt as to who was taking the spot-kick and duly completed his hat-trick with a deft finish. Soon after the United manager took off Cushley, who though not at his best, did contribute well with some intelligent running. On came Andy Smith for his first game of the year (after his six game suspension) and I thought that'll mean Sparky dropping into midfield but I was wrong as Andy went to Cushley's wide berth instead. United then played some delightful football as manager Walker made two further substitutions. In a surprise move he took off young Archie Stewart and brought on Noel Anderson, which meant Gary Haveron dropping back to central defence His final substitution saw Taggart, who had one of his best games in a Sky Blue shirt, being replaced by big Nathan, with Sparky dropping into midfield.

United as I said played some delightful football now that the game was safe and a lovely move resulted in Ramsay scoring after Sparky's shot had come off the goalkeeper, but the linesman waved it offside. There's no way this was offside but the same official, 'flagged' twice more, wrongly, just for good measure. During the two minutes of stoppage time United continued to dominate proceedings, but failed to add to their score, but most importantly, we were through to the next round of the cup. By an ironic coincidence we have a league game on Tuesday night at home to Glenavon, who we then must face in the next round of the cup on Saturday March 6 at their ground, how weird that is!

Nelson (7), Ramsay (7), Colligan (7), Archie (7)(Sub: Anderson 7,), Albert (7), M. Smith (7), Taggart (8) (Sub: Nathan 7,), Haveron (8), Cushley (7)(Sub: A. Smith 7,), Sparky (8), Kelbie (8)

Man of the match: Kevin Kelbie