Wasted Journey!

For the two hundred odd United fans who made the journey to Windsor Park today, it was a wasted effort, as our team never turned up. No they didn't miss the bus or anything mundane like that, they were there alright, but they showed no interest in taking part in a game of football. Our manager's penchant for playing men out of position is now costing us dearly. If he hasn't realised it by now, Archie is a central defender, in an emergency he can play at left-back, but it's not a natural position for him. Likewise Lee Colligan, yes he can play left midfield in an emergency, but his best position is left-back. For 70 minutes today we struggled with these two players out of position and even though that didn't directly lead to our defeat, it was part of the problem.

Then we have the 'famous' or is it infamous, Gary Muir, playing wide right, who twice 'chickened' out of 60/40 balls in his favour and when he is eventually substituted, he's replaced by Sparky who goes straight into a striking role, which necessitates Andy Smith dropping into a wide right role. I wonder if Roy was confused by the Linfield squad numbers which the announcer read out in no particular formation? Or is the rumour true, that he just doesn't have a clue and depends on divine intervention from above to help him make his decisions, I tell you it's becoming harder to 'only believe'.

Albert Watson returned to the team to partner Chris Ramsay in central defence, with Mike Smith, who can play either wide midfield or fullback, reverting to rightback. Sparky was relegated to the bench,along with Noel Anderson and Aiden Watson, so Gazza moved into central midfield with Taggart. To say we were diabolical was to make a gross understatement. We couldn't pass, kept 'messing up' free kicks and generally seemed to have a 'couldn't care less' attitude. Nobody typified this more than Gary Muir in right midfield, but in an ironic twist of fate he almost delivered a killer blow just before halftime. Having won a corner on the right he delivered a perfect dead-ball into the penalty box where Gazza of all people directed a header wide, when it looked easier to score.

The rest of the first half was fairly non-de-script, Taggart picked up the booking which should leave him eligible for the cup game, but on this showing that doesn't look like a bonus. Linfield defender Winky Armstrong was lucky to stay on the field when after picking up a caution for a heavy challenge, he then kicked out at Andy Smith, but the man who 'hears words that are never spoken', referee Trevor Moutray turned his back on the incident. Nelson was forced into a smart save by the home team's best player, Paul Munster, but all in all it was pretty poor stuff.

The halftime highlight was a United fan winning the Carling dribble, at least that's what I call it, well at least he showed the players how it should be done. The home team stepped up the pressure after halftime and United were unable to clear their lines although Taggart had a chance to set up a counter-attack, but instead gave the ball away and due to some slip-shod defending the ball fell to Phil Lowry on the edge of the box and he drilled it into the net to give the home team the lead. Surely we thought the manager must act, take off Muir and Taggart, bringing on Cushley and Locky to see if we can salvage something.

Of course he surprised us by taking off Muir and bringing on Sparky, who is basically a central defender, who can play up front in an emergency, now where did I hear that before? This made little or no difference to our offensive capabilities and in fact left us even more disjointed that we had been before. We still had the struggling Taggart in midfield and two players playing out of position on the left side. With 20 minutes remaining Roy took Archie off and brought on the Cush, but after 5 minutes switched him to the right side, instead of leaving him in his natural left side position. Cushley did manage to force former United keeper Alan Blayney into a save but it was really a fairly innocuous effort.

In a last throw of the dice Locky replaced Taggart, but it was far too late to make any difference to the outcome of the game. United did win a couple of free kicks about 30 yards from goal, but our prowess in that department is sadly lacking and so it proved today. United's Lee Colligan escaped without a booking when he deliberately blocked a Linfield forward just inside the penalty area. To the utter surprise of almost everyone in the ground the referee gave the home side a free kick on the edge of the box. But then what else is new, Moutray never did care for a true representation of the facts, if in doubt, make it up, appears to be his attitude! The match petered out with a measly two minutes of added time despite the blatant time-wasting tactics of the home side, but if they had played all night we still couldn't have scored anyway.

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

Man of the match: Dwayne Nelson