Half Term!

As stated in Sky Blue Sport last night United have passed the halfway stage of league or the league before the split. All I can say is I'm glad its over, that's if this amateurish display by the Sky Blues is an example of what happens to us on rare occasions. If it's not a rare occurrence then we're in for a long hard season. United, showing only one change from Tuesday night's starting line-up, Taggart in for the suspended Hanly, didn't have long to wait before they fell apart at the back. Only 10 minutes were on the clock when home fullback Ronan Scannell stole in at the back post, beating Sparky of all people to a high ball, before powering a header past the out of position Ryan Brown, in the United goal. Brown had appeared to call some instruction to Sparky while Albert and company attempted to spring an offside trap, but to no avail.

This was the start we didn't want, especially as this was our first game on the hosts artificial surface, which leaves a gigantic lot to be desired. United were caught at the back once more when midfielder Johnston sprinted through our defence and Brown made a point blank save. But he only postponed the inevitable as in almost a carbon copy of the first goal, Chris Scannell out-jumped the United defence to double his teams lead. Brown made yet another good save to keep the score down as the home team ran our defence ragged. United were unable to get things going at the other end, but Murray did sting home keeper Connolly's hands with a fierce shot from a narrow angle. With 35 minutes on the clock Cutch squandered a glorious chance when he found himself through on goal, but blasted the ball miles wide, instead of picking his spot.

A goal for us then would maybe have given us a foothold in the match, but the chance wasn't taken and what followed had an inevitable feel about it. Captain Gazza and Mikey Smith, were two players who rose above the mediocre, but they were after all the only two. A minute before halftime Albert completely messed up a simple clearance and Chris Scannell gleefully hammered the ball past the hapless Brown to give his team a deserved 3-0 lead. As United trudged off at halftime it was obvious that some changes would have to be made, or we would suffer a heavy defeat. The halftime scores sounded good, but with our own perilous situation, we knew we couldn't take advantage of the teams above us who were struggling.

2nd half
Manager Walker took off Gazza and Gibbo, bringing on Andy Smith and Ryan Berry. In Gibbo's case I could understand it as he had struggled on the sub-standard surface, but Gazza's removal was a complete mystery to me personally. Two minutes into the 2nd half and the game was up, when Chris Scannell easily out-sprinted Denver to a though ball before shooting past the stranded Brown to make the score 4-0. Two minutes later Denver was substituted, with Archie taking his place, but still we continued to struggle. We did play a wee bit of football in the 2nd period, but our final pass usually let us down, either too close to the keeper or losing possession at the vital moment.

Substitute Berry did force the home keeper to a good save, when he met a Murray cross and that was as close as we came to scoring. Referee Davey Malcolm obviously had decided not to caution anybody today, quite a contrast to the last game he officiated in when we were involved, as he allowed the hosts to get away with 3 brutal challenges, merely giving them a 'ticking off', a complete waste of time. The United defence had a couple of let-offs and Brown made a good save or two, but the dreaded 5th goal finally arrived in the 82nd minute, with a powerful header from veteran Peter Hutton from a corner kick, Lee Colligan made a vain attack to stop it but merely headed it into the net, it just about summed up our day. Somehow we survived until the 90th minute without our defences being breached again, oh how we shall remember Saturday 13 November, well for a few days anyway!

Brown (5), Sparky (5), Colligan (6) Albert (4), Denver (5)(Sub: Archie 6,), Mikey (6), Taggart (5), Gazza (6)(Sub: Berry 6,), Murray (5), Cutch (4), Gibbo (4)(Sub: Andy Smith (5)

Man of the match: Mikey Smith