Blue Murder!

My worst fears were realised today when referee Alan Black went on a yellow card vendetta against his home town team. This would have been bad enough, but he allowed the visitors to get away with persistent leg-break tackles and it was a miracle no-one had serious damage inflicted on them. United as expected, fielded their strongest starting 11, but winger Murray still looked short of his best form. I and my colleagues have preached time and time again about our defence's lack of discipline, in allowing teams to get crosses in. Today we were undone by such a move when Denver of all people allowed Peter Thompson enough space to get his cross in and Linfield's McAllister stole in at the near post to open the scoring. That goal came after 20 minutes and United to their credit didn't allow their heads to drop and were rewarded with a penalty for deliberate hand-ball 5 minutes later.

My heart was in my mouth I can tell you as we have missed our previous three penalties, but up stepped Gibbo to blast the ball into the right-hand corner with Blaney diving the other way. Having got back on level terms tragedy struck for the Sky Blues in the 30th minute, after the visitors were awarded a doubtful free kick for what looked like a good tackle from Sparky. To make matters worse Sparky was cautioned and when the free came in, Dwayne came for it but only succeeded in punching the ball into his own net. The United heads did drop at this point and it looked like the visitors would add to their tally. But the United defence, ably marshalled by Albert, dug in and thwarted the visitors attack. The linesman at the Fisherwick end missed 3 blatant offsides, but luckily for the home side they came to nothing. Halftime was reached with the visitors 2-1 ahead and it was obvious United were in need of fresh ideas.

2nd Half
Murray didn't appear for the 2nd period and he was replaced by Andy Smith and we switched to a 4,3,3 formation. Denver, my man of the match last week was struggling against Thompson who was allowed to get away with elbowing the United man throughout the game. When Denver appealed to referee Black, after a blatant push by the Linfield player (a fruitless exercise at the best of times), he promptly got himself booked. Ten minutes into the half Denver was withdrawn, which meant Captain Gazza dropping back into defence and Denver's replacement, Gavin Taggart, slotting into midfield. Albert, a real colossus in our defence, missed a tackle on McAllister and he fed Thompson, who in turn coolly chipped the ball over Nelson to make the score 3-1 to Linfield. United to their credit upped their game and the linesman, who remember had missed 3 blatant offsides in the first half, somehow adjudged Cutch offside, when he had been behind the original play. Picture the scene, a corner to United on their left, the ball comes to the far post, is headed back across goal and Cutch comes in to head it into the net, but is flagged offside, a real injustice.

In a break by the visitors McAllister looked certain to put the game beyond United, when Albert came up with a perfectly timed tackle just as he had against Portadown two weeks earlier. He not only got his tackle in, he also brought the ball out of defence and set his side on the attack. The game was balanced on a knife edge and Linfield were doing their best to kill it off. But United were not to be denied and despite the linesman flagging them 3 more times (all of them correctly), they deservedly reduced the arrears after 68 minutes. Mikey Smith was the provider, who after a throw-in, clipped a pass to Sparky and he headed past the flat-footed Blaney, to reduce the leeway to 3-2. In the next 5 minutes we spurned 2 glorious chances to level the scores. Firstly, Archie sprinted down the left wing like a Greyhound, before whipping a pass to the far post and with the goal gaping, Gibbo of all people headed wide. A minute later the ball fell to Cutch near the penalty spot, but he blasted his shot wide.

United deservedly levelled the scores in the 78th minute, when after Sparky had a shot blocked, a Linfield defender's attempted clearance, ricocheted off Sparky before looping over Blaney's head and into the net. Alan Black was still dishing out yellow cards and actually cautioned a Linfield player, while United's Nathan Hanly, was lucky to get away after a heavy if not vicious tackle as the game neared stoppage time. United's man on the touchline Wesley Gregg, while our manager serves a 3 game ban, took Hanly off at this point and brought on Lee Colligan for his 90th appearance in a Sky Blue shirt. During the 3 minutes of added time, referee Black did his best for the Linfield cause, awarding them another dubious free kick. Then after a rare United attack broke up, Linfield player Mulgrew took exception to Gavin Taggart's attempt to delay the free being taken and was clearly seen to punch the United man in the 'nether regions'.

Referee Black was left with little choice but to red card the Linfield player for this despicable act and it will be interesting to see how the I.F.A. disciplinary committee view this incident of violent conduct. United survived a last ditch assault and as Andy Smith broke away he was unceremoniously hauled down at the halfway line. Referee Black not only merely cautioned the Linfield culprit for this 'professional foul', he also blew up before United could take the free kick. When the whistle sounded I had mixed emotions, relief that we had hauled back the deficit, but disappointment that we hadn't taken all 3 points, when we clearly had the chances. Still it was nice to disappoint the travelling Linfield support, whose numbers were sadly depleted with only about 1400 of them making the trip to God's country. Now all I have to do is get my voice back for next Saturday, so bring on that Molly Malone!

Nelson (6), Sparky (8), Albert (8), Denver (6)(Sub: Taggart 7), Archie (8), Mikey (7), Nathan (7)(Sub: Lee 6), Gazza (8), Murray (6)(Sub: Andy 7), Gibbo (8), Cutch (7)

Man of the match: Sparky