Dee Ceased!

United's season is almost dead and buried before it has really begun, maybe I'm being a bit over-dramatic here, but the ease with which newly promoted Donegal Celtic (D.C.), ripped through our defence was terrifying to put it mildly. Nobody in our back four emerged with any credit from Saturday's game and goalkeeper Ryan Brown must've been longing to be back in the first division. As a former defender myself I had always tried to keep tight on my opponent and try to direct him toward the by-line, obviously our defenders are quite happy to shepherd them towards the centre, if Saturday's game was anything to judge them by.

The defence was bad and the midfield was non-existent, Ryan Berry, showed exactly why he's been spending his time in the lower division recently, while Gavin Taggart proved it was possible to be worse than at Windsor, with a display which was at best mediocre. Eamon Murray did show a few flashes of class and how referee Halliday failed to caution the D.C. player who scythed him down in the first minute is beyond me. Gazza tried his eye-strings out, but he was fighting a lone battle while upfront Andy Smith was running about like a headless chicken and Cutch was having a stroll in the sun.

It was obvious that changes would have to be made, but Roy fiddled while D.C. suddenly realised we were there for the taking. Their first goal after 26 minutes was simplicity itself, although referee Halliday played a major part in it. Mike Smith, whose head is somewhere else at the moment, was penalised at a throw-in and the throw went to the visitors, for whatever reason. Maybe our defence was unsettled by this and that would explain why they allowed Mark Dickson, to dribble unchallenged into the penalty box before setting up Mark Cleary for an easy finish. Two minutes later they doubled their score as winger McVeigh skipped up the left wing unchallenged by Berry or Mike Smith and his pull-back was driven home by Stephen McAlorum, while Watson and keeper Brown got entangled, not a pretty sight.

United were struggling to clear their lines and it was obvious that a change need to be made upfront as the forwards were unable or unwilling to hold the ball for any length of time. D.C. had obviously done their homework on us and were not giving our back four the chance to play out of defence and showed up the shortcomings in manager Walker's tactics, in short we're a one-dimensional team. With halftime approaching it seemed obvious that at least a double substitution would have to be made, a midfielder and a forward. The midfielder had to be the inadequate Taggart, while the striker should've been Smith, who looked like a man wanting to be sent off, probably anxious to miss the game at Portadown next week.

2nd half
United made one change at halftime with Berry making way for Mo McDowell, obviously Roy being a brilliant tactician could see that was the weak link in our team. Andy Smith almost got his day-off next Saturday when he was cautioned for an elbow on D.C. defender Watson, but this seemed to calm him down a bit. United, even with Mo on the left wing and Murray on the right, still failed to trouble the visiting defence and in fact fell further behind, when the linesman at the far end of the ground went asleep and allowed that McVeigh was onside despite being 2 yards beyond the last defender (maybe the linesman thought he was playing him on) and he was allowed to run through on goal before shooting through Archie's legs and past the hapless Brown in the United goal.

United's afternoon was summed up 7 minutes later when Taggart gave away possession for the umpteenth time, Gazza, in attempting to clear his lines, scythed down a D.C. forward instead and D.C. top player, McVeigh, sent Brown the wrong way from the resultant penalty. Manger Walker (or Rip Van Winkle to give him his proper title), finally took Taggart off with George Young taking his place and he at least injected some forward movement into our play. Walker finally played his last card, bringing on Mackers for Mike Smith, which meant Andy Smith dropping into a 5 man midfield and us going to 3 at the back, not what I call a positive move by any means. Although I was glad to see Mackers get his chance, I keep wondering what Walker's saving his first signing of the close season, Richard Gibson for? We'll probably never know, but surely a run out on Saturday in place of either our two inept strikers would have shown if there was anything but a bleak future ahead of us.

United's ineptitude in front of goal was demonstrated perfectly when Young sprinted into the box and delivered a gem of a cross, while his fellow players stood and watched, none willing to make an effort to get a touch on the ball. The D.C. keeper, who had hardly broken a sweat, must've breathed a sigh of relief and knew that he was going to have a clean sheet, with this punch-less home attack, a quiet day at the office for him. Thankfully the visitors were content with their easy victory and as for United they are in the league position they have finished in for the last two seasons, 10th and it's hard to see how they can improve on this showing, in fact if something isn't done and done pretty quickly, it'll be a bleak outlook for the Sky Blues this season!

Brown (6), M. Smith (4)(Sub: Mackers 6), Colligan (4), Watson (4), Archie (5), Berry (4)(Sub: McDowell 6), Taggart (3)(Sub: Young 6), Gazza (6), Murray (5), A. Smith (4), Cutch (4)

Man of the match: Gazza