Gone Fishing!

In the movies the common excuse for not being at your job, especially in the summer, is that you've 'gone fishing'. I wonder if United manager Roy Walker has mentally hung out the 'gone fishing' sign at the Showgrounds as he continues to commit 'gaffe after gaffe', in his team selection and in his tactics. I think it's official now that only one team, Donegal Celtic, is being promoted this season, so no matter what happens only one team is in jeopardy of going down to the first division, luckily for us that team is Institute. Our best possible finishing position in the league this year looks like being 10th and depending on the results from Distillery and Newry in their last two games, one of which is against each other, anything less than a win at Glenavon in our last game could leave us finishing one from the bottom.

But why am I saying that Roy Walker hung up the 'gone fishing' sign you may ask? Well I'll tell you. Yesterday we started with 4 central defenders as our back four. Lee Colligan has disappeared off the radar for one reason or another, so we're short of a leftback (what the fcuk is our reserve team for I wonder), so Archie is played there. Now I'm going to stick my neck out here and say that Archie will never, yes I said never, be a leftback, not while Pussy is a cat. The position is so alien to him and I can see him floundering there every week. Then at rightback we have Kit Ramsay, playing there so as Mike Smith can take up a wide right position and like Archie, Kit Ramsay will never be a rightback. The best position for both these boys is central defence, yes they can fill in, in an emergency, but not every week.

There's also the effect this has on Mike and Lee when they're pushed into midfield as they have to keep a weather eye on their respective backs as they constantly need to cover for them. Roy in my opinion has lost the plot, but in an ironic twist, if we win on Saturday and the Whites beat Newry On Tuesday and both only take a point in their last game, we will finish in 8th, what a travesty of justice that would be. But I digress badly, the Tommy Wright circus rolled into town yesterday, mugged us and went merrily on their way and we stood by and watched. In a surprise move, the forgotten man Nathan McConnell got a rare start as Sparky was suspended, while Noel Anderson got a starting role also, but in a wide left position.

With just 7 minutes on the clock the United defence was breached when Kit failed to deal properly with an attempted clearance and the ball was passed to Brown who easily beat Nelson to score. Ten minutes later the United defence was caught napping again, but Browne's goal bound shot was cleared off the line by Archie, with Nelson stranded. United's cause wasn't helped by a yet another useless linesman who missed about half a dozen blatant offsides including one where a Whites player was 10 yards at least offside. United got a lifeline after 29 minutes when Smith found Anderson in the box and he found the back of the net. United managed to hold out until halftime but they were decidedly lucky, but as luck would have it they missed a glorious chance in stoppage time. Taggart, completely out of touch for most of the half, broke clear after a corner and with Kelbie sprinting down the wing in acres of space, he passed to a Whites defender. The referee blew his whistle for halftime and it was obvious something had to be done during the interval to change things for us.

Manager Walker did change things for the 2nd half, but I for one was flabbergasted as he took off our best midfielder, Aidy Watson and brought on Gary Muir. Why take off Watson I wondered and if he wasn't injured, I'm sure Aidy is wondering also. Noel Anderson moved into central midfield alongside Taggart who was a virtual passenger throughout. Then 8 minutes into the half Roy took off Anderson his goalscorer and brought on Mackers, with McConnell dropping back to right midfield, Smith to rightback, Kit to central defence and Gazza to central midfield. We did create a little more in the 2nd period and Albert had a header cleared off the line from a Muir corner. Manager Walker decided another change was necessary but this one was a complete mystery to me and confirmed my thought about the 'gone fishing' idea, taking off a striker, big Nathan and bringing on a green reserve player, Ross Nelson.

Surely keeping Nathan on the field and going with 3 up front would have been a more positive move, but then again that's not our style. Our forward's ineptness was summed up for me exactly when Mike Smith delivered a perfect free kick and they stood and watched as the Whites defence cleared the ball. Our day was in complete tatters when the Whites scythed through our defence and Browne found himself one-on-one with Nelson and he duly found the net. Mackers missed a glorious chance to claim a point for us when he failed to find the target from 10 yards when he shot wide of an open goal. This result and Newry's win at Glenavon knocked us into 10th position and leaves us in a rather precarious position, safe from relegation, but not from humiliation. This situation cannot be allowed to continue, surely our board has to act sooner rather than later, we are not progressing, we are going backwards, but I do hope there were no 'gambling' irregularities, mainly because I wasn't in on it!

D.Nelson (7), Kit (5), Archie (6), Albert (7), Gazza (6), M.Smith (7), Taggart (4), Aidy (7)(Sub: Muir 6,), Anderson (8)(Sub: Mackers 5,), Nathan (6)(Sub: R. Nelson 6,), Kelbie (5)

Man of the match: Noel Amderson