Gary Replies!

In our column last night we asked when Gary McCutcheon was going to deliver on his promise of goals and today he answered our question, when his brace gave United a somewhat flattering share of the spoils with Glenavon. Manager Walker carried through with his intention of tweaking the team. Firstly he dropped Dwayne Nelson, with Ryan Brown taking his place and omitted last weeks two goal hero Sparky, which meant Mikey Smith dropped back to rightback, Murray to right midfield, Hanly to left midfield and Taggart to centre midfield. The visitors, with the 'on loan' Gary Hamilton on board, came out sharply and Brown distinguished himself with a smart save to keep out a Harper shot. The visitors were moving quite slickly, but it was United who took the lead after only five minutes. Cutch took a pass from Hanly, before playing a one/two with his strike partner Gibbo and beating Glenavon keeper Plummer from the edge of the box.

Unfortunately this lead was short lived as the United defence got itself into yet another tangle when there seemed little danger. Goalkeeper Brown came for a through ball, collided with Denver and Gary Hamilton who was well offside in my opinion stroked the ball home and referee Halliday pointed to the centre circle. The United heads dropped a bit after this setback and Keeper Brown had a let-off when a weak punch fell to Hamilton, but he shot wide. Soon after Brown and his co-defenders stood and watched as a corner came across the six-yard box and breathed a sigh of relief when defender Turkington blasted the ball wide. There was yet another let-off when a Hamilton free kick eluded everybody before drifting wide of the target. In a rare United attack, Murray cut in from the right and drew a save from Plummer and defender Magee was on hand to deny Cutch at the expense of a corner.

Cutch almost gave United a halftime lead when after Hanly was 'cleaned' by the last man, the striker's quick free kick just skimmed the crossbar. Gazza was playing his Captain's part to the full today as he almost singlehandedly tried to stop the flow of the visitors attack, while our back four were under extreme pressure not helped i think by a lack of understanding with keeper Brown. One or two back passes were a little 'hairy' to put it mildly, but we survived and it was hoped that manager Walker could weave some magic at the interval, as it was surely needed.

2nd half
United made one change at halftime, with Hanly being replaced by the fit again Ryan Berry. This substitution made little or no difference as far as I could see and it was the visitors who looked the likelier team. Ryan Berry did manage one run up the right before being 'chopped down by visiting defender Neill, it was a brutal tackle, but it merely drew a yellow card from referee Halliday, when surely it merited a red. As if to add insult to injury ten minutes later defender Neill rose to a corner, unchallenged by the flat-footed Brown, to head the visitors into a 2-1 lead. Surely this would awaken United from their slumbers I thought, but Brown had to come to our rescue 2 mins later with a good save after a shot from Harper. Andy Smith replaced Taggart as United attempted to turn the game round, but to no avail. With 63 minutes on the clock the United defence was torn apart with a slick move down the left flank and the ball was squared to Hamilton who notched his 2nd and the visitors 3rd goal from close range.

Manager Walker then played his final ace, taking off Archie and bringing on Colligan and rather surprisingly we started to get a foothold in the game, forced half a dozen corners, but were unable to find the vital touch. Referee Halliday warned the visiting keeper and his players about their time-wasting tactics, but it seemed like a wasted exercise as United were devoid of ideas as to how to get back into the game. Opposition manager Marty Quinn took off striker Tony Grant and he made a point of shaking Albert's hand before he left, a sure sign of respect. United were almost on all out attack mode and had a couple of let-offs when the visitors could've put the game beyond them. Albert then came close to reducing the leeway, but his header from a Mikey Smith free just skimmed the crossbar.

With 89 minutes on the clock United were given a lifeline when after the ball had been cleared to near the halfway line, visiting defenders backed off Albert inviting him to shoot, which he duly did and the ball screamed into the top corner with Plummer beaten all ends up. The United fans could hardly believe it, Albert scoring from 30 yards, unheard of I can tell you, but it brought us back into the game. This was Albert's 10th goal in a United shirt, in his 289 appearance and I don't think he'll ever score a better one. The 4th official signalled that there would be 3 minutes of stoppage time, with only four substitutions made there was obviously a minute added for time-wasting and this may well come back to haunt the visitors over the coming weeks.

As the 92 minute approached, Gibbo found Berry down the left flank, he cut inside his marker before laying the ball into Cutch's path and he drilled it into the net for his 7th goal in a United shirt and to make the score 3-3. To say the United fans were delirious would have been a gross understatement. They had after all just witnessed their boys being outplayed by the high earners from County Armagh, only to score two killer goals late on to salvage a point. We did miss the chance to jump to 4th place in the league, but we preserved our 5 game unbeaten run and we scored 3 goals for the 5th match running, it doesn't get much better than this I can tell you!

Brown (6), Mikey (7), Archie (6)(Sub: Colligan 6,), Albert (8), Denver (7), Murray (7), Taggart (6)(Sub: Andy Smith 6,), Gazza (8), Hanly (6)(Sub: Berry 7,), Gibbo (7), Cutch (8)

Man of the match: Gary McCutcheon