Mikey's Miss!

It's with great sadness that I must refer to Mikey Smith's miss tonight which effectively cost us two points. Admittedly we were down to 10 men at that time after a 50/50 challenge, by Nathan Hanly, led to a red card from referee Stephen Weatherall. Whites midfielder Andy Devlin was unlucky to suffer a serious injury, but in my humble opinion, referee Weatherall over-reacted by sending United's Nathan Hanly off, for what was at best a hard honest tackle and at worst a slightly mistimed one. Neither of which was worthy of a straight red card, but referee Weatherall, who was originally reluctant to let the game proceed because of poor floodlighting and then made no allowances for a game played in semi-darkness, decided it merited a red card and he is god after all. To make matters worse, Distillery player Simpson, used abusive language to Ballymena fans and then accused the same fans of abusing the injured Devlin, this of course was a complete and utter lie.

United manager Roy Walker was true to his word and made two changes to his starting line-up, with Lee Colligan replacing Archie and Sparky replacing Taggart. It didn't take long for one of these changes to come up trumps, in fact only 7 minutes had elapsed when Sparky, using the semi-darkness well, burst through the hesitant Whites defence, before blasting the ball past Matthews in the home goal to give United the lead. This was Sparky's 3rd goal in 2 games, not a bad return for a rightback and a local boy to boot. The rest of the half was a bit of a mystery to me as it was impossible to see exactly what was happening beyond the middle of the pitch. The Whites, whose tactics are just get the keeper to thump it up and then fight for it, took this a bit too literally and I am reliably informed that striker Gary Brown lashed out at a United player. This offence usually means a mandatory red card, but referee Weatherall, after a long consultation with his linesman, merely cautioned the culprit, makes one wonder what a player needs to do to get sent off.

United forced a couple of corners and for a change Denver got his headers on target, but they were easily saved by Matthews. United had a lucky let-off when the ball fell to Ferguson about 25 yards from goal and the burly striker's superb shot beat United keeper Brown fair and square, but rebounded off the crossbar to safety. Despite giving away a couple of free kicks, or should I say 'despite' referee Weatherall awarding a couple of dubious free kicks, the United defensive 'wall' did their job superbly well and they survived keeping their one goal lead as the halftime whistle sounded. We then waited for the announcement that the game had been abandoned due to the poor lighting, but it never came.

2nd half
Nine minutes into the half tragedy struck as Nathan Hanly was carrying the ball out of defence Whites midfielder Devlin made to intercept the ball and the two players met in a 50/50 challenge. I was 15 yards from the incident and I honestly saw nothing wrong in the challenge, although the Whites player did 'chicken out' slightly and in those situations if you go in half-heartedly you generally come off second best. Referee Weatherall who was 30 yards from the incident took his red card out immediately as he ran over towards the incident. Play was held up for 10 minutes as the player was treated on the pitch, quite a contrast to the two most recent United players who had their legs broken in similar incidents, who were ushered over the touch line while play continued and no fouls given or any cards issued. The referee definitely over-reacted and where oh where did he get 15 minutes to add on, two substitutions were made during this stoppage and only 3 further substitutions were made.

During the stoppage United kit-man Bertnell Thompson came across the pitch to say they'd had a complaint from the referee that United fans were verbally abusing the injured player, Devlin. This of course was a complete fabrication, yet another referee telling deliberate lies, as Trevor Moutray did at Dungannon. While in Scotland referee Dougie McDonald told a deliberate lie to Glasgow Celtic boss Neil Lennon, who now expects an apology. I hope for his sake he has a lot of patience as United fans have been maligned wrongly many, many times in the past and never had an apology or are never likely to get one either. In fact all the barracking and that's all it was, was between Simpson and our fans and then when he was told some home truths he went crying to the referee, who then concocted a story about our fans, a load of garbage, but what else can you expect from people who think they're gods.

United took off Cutch at this venture with Taggart replacing him, was this a negative move I wondered, if it had been a defender sent off I could have understood the need to shore up the defence, but as it was a midfielder, surely we needed to not allow them to commit an extra man to attack. Let me say here that I'm casting no aspersions on the United players, as they were all heroes and played with total conviction, but we did at times defend too deeply. We did however create a glorious chance about 5 minutes after the restart, when Eamon Murray and Lee combined well up the left and when Lee broke to the byline his near perfect cross was somehow blasted over the bar from six yards by Mikey Smith. It was hard to see how this happened as it seemed easier to score, but happen it did and it left us balanced on a knife edge.

The Whites were unable to make their extra man count as they were still trying to undo us with long ball tactics and when our defence was beaten there was keeper Brown to calm things down. Gazza as ever was playing his heart out in midfield, while Eamon was always available to give us an outlet up the left, while Gibbo up front ran his socks off. Former United player David Cushley came on for the home team and definitely did not endear himself to United fans with a cynical tackle on Eamon, which rightly earned him a caution. From the free kick, Lee slipped the ball to Eamon, who swept past two defenders before shooting just past the post with keeper Matthews stranded. Simpson was rightly booked for a foul on Taggart and then United took off the exhausted Gibbo, bringing on Andy Smith. The home team finally conjured up an equaliser in the 98th minute, when Patton, who looked offside, although in the darkness it was hard to tell, crossed for Ferguson to head into the net.

United almost took the lead immediately after when Eamon sprinted down the left, cut along the by line before releasing a thunderbolt shot at goal, only for Matthews to make a brilliant save. Two minutes later Cushley high tackled Sparky and got a 2nd yellow card which led to his sending off. Sparky had to receive treatment and referee Weatherall made him wait a minute before waving him back on, utter stupidity. As if to compound his night of ineffective refereeing he blew for full-time a whole minute early, but then he is incompetence itself. United had come close to deservedly taking all three points and despite all the drama all I could think of was Mikey's miss, yet another missed chance to add to the many that have occurred this season, as I have always said,sooner or later they come back to hurt you, oh how I wish I had been wrong!

Brown (7), Sparky (8), Colligan (8), Albert (8), Denver (7), Mikey (7), Hanly (7), Gazza (8), Eamon (8), Cutch (7)(Sub: Taggart 7,), Gibbo (8)(Sub: Andy Smith 7,)

Man of the match: Gazza