Sleep Over!

Picture the scene, United had weathered the Crusader's storm at Seaview and then after two incisive passes from 'man-of- the- match' Aiden Watson, had taken a rather surprising 2-0 lead. Opposition manager Stephen Baxter, takes off a defender and brings on his top scorer Davy Rainey at the start of the 2nd half, while our manager does sweet F.A. in order to nullify this threat. The result of course is that the Crues crawl their way back into the match and snatch a point from the game. Surely Walker should've reacted by bringing on either (a) another defender or (b) another attacker, Roy of course, like Nero, fiddled and our three points were burned.

The United manager made two personnel changes to Saturday's team, out went Ramsay and team Captain Gazza, with Aiden Watson, getting Gazza's midfield berth and Sparky moving back to the striker's role. Colligan returned to leftback, Archie moved into central defence and top scorer Kevin Kelbie was shunted onto the left wing. Kevin is an 'out-and-out' striker, put him on the wing and he loses interest and why would you put your top scorer on the wing, it baffles me. Put him up front where he revels in scoring goals, if you need a left winger, you've got young Cushley kicking his heels in the reserves, use him instead.

United were subjected to some heavy pressure by the the home side, whose game plan on this disgraceful excuse for a pitch is a long ball from the keeper on every occasion. Despite this constant barrage for the first half hour, United kept their goal intact, although young Archie was clearly struggling against the flailing elbows of the home team's front men. The home team were also aided and abetted by a linesman who was rarely up with play and missed at least three blatant offsides. Referee Heatherington was in his 'nicey nicey' mood and instead of yellow cards for heavy tackles by the home team, it was a case of 'you're a naughty boy and you shouldn't do that', which of course meant the tackles got even worse.

United turned the game on it's head in a two minute period just before halftime, when Aiden Watson firstly set Andy Smith free with a defence splitting pass and Smickers rounded the keeper before slotting the ball into the net to put United one up. Two minutes later, in the 39th minute, Muir and Watson combined and Aidy then set up Taggart who chipped the keeper beautifully to make it 2-0 for the Sky Blues. United created at least two more chances before the break, but couldn't add to their tally. The inconsistency of linesmen then reared it's ugly head, when Kelbie sped up the wing only to be called back as Sparky was in an offside position, but taking no part in the play.

As I said earlier Baxter changed things round by discarding a defender and bringing on a striker, but our man merely dithered. The only reason I can find for this lapse from Walker, was that he was having a sleep over at Baxter's house and didn't want to annoy him too much in case he got no supper. The upshot was that the Crues barrage of the first half continued and in fact was far more penetrative and Archie was under sever pressure, but Walker was oblivious to it. Surely I thought Roy must react, we had at least two defenders cum midfielders on the bench,in Ramsay and Gazza, either or both of whom he could've thrown into fray at the expense of Taggart and or Watson, who were failing to get to grips with their counterparts.

Inevitably the goal had to come and when it did it was something special. Archie was adjudged to have fouled a Crues forward about 25 yards from goal and slightly to the right. United lined up their defensive wall and we could see there was a small gap at the left side. Home winger Donnelly found this gap with a beautiful bending free kick that left Nelson, who had looked unbeatable in the first half, well beaten and reduce the deficit to 2-1. Rip van Roy, finally acted or should I say over-reacted, taking off Archie and bringing on Gazza, which still left us a defender short. Gazza barely had time to get to the pace of the game when he failed to get a decisive header to a through ball and suddenly the game was all square at 2-2, when a Crues forward had the easy task of shooting past the unprotected Nelson.

Gary Muir wasted three opportunities in this half to put in telling crosses, but then again he seems to carry the ball too far rather than putting in the telling early cross which was his trademark at Distillery. He was the next man to be replaced with Ramsay taking his place and this at least looked like a sensible solution, bringing on a defender for a midfielder. Kelbie managed to bring a good save from the home keeper, but Sparky couldn't get to the rebound. Two minutes later the referee blew to halt play when United's Lee Colligan went down injured, but as he turned his back he failed to see the Crues number 5 flatten Kelbie into the railings. Kelbie had to come off with young Lennon taking his place and as if to add insult to injury the Crues failed to give the ball back to us, kicking it into touch instead.

There still was time for Sparky to be hauled down by the same number 5, which brought a yellow card from the referee, too little too late. United forced a couple of corners and played some nice football around the home team's penalty box, but without top scorer Kelbie, they couldn't find the vital breakthrough. Yet once more we had snatched a draw from the jaws of victory, but in my opinion our manager must take some of the blame for this lapse as he failed to read the game and made the wrong substitution and in my opinion, made it too late. There's an old saying from somewhere, 'too late, too late, will be the cry', Roy could do worse than take that into account!


Nelson (7), M.Smith (7), Colligan (7), Archie (5)(Sub: Gazza 6), Alb Watson (7), Muir (5)(Sub: Ramsay 6), Taggart (7), Aid Watson (8), Kelbie (6)(Sub: Lennon 6), A. Smith (7), Sparky (6)

Man of the match: Aidy Watson