Two Ryans!

You've heard of the novel no doubt, a 'tale of two cities', well today at the snowbound Showgrounds, it was a tale of two Ryans, one a villain and one a hero. Both were playing for the Sky Blues and because of their collective influence, or in spite of it, if you like, United and the Crues played out a 1-1 draw. United manager, Roy Walker, started with the same eleven as last week, which meant a place on the bench for big Denver, with captain Gazza continuing to partner Albert at the back. The pitch, which was unplayable according to 4th official Alan Black at 11 am and was given the all-clear by referee Steven Weatherall at 13-30 hrs, had a light covering of snow, but was perfectly okay.

The Crues were the most forceful early on, adapting to the conditions better than the home team and Dallas, should have done better with an early chance when he met a cross-field ball, but fired over the bar. United have a tendency to give players a bit of space and this almost led to their undoing, when Morrow was allowed to shoot from 25 yards and Brown had to be at his best to tip his shot over the bar. From the resultant corner, Brown did well again when he punched the ball clear. United were struggling upfront without their usual target-man, Gibbo, but did manage a good break when Murray sped down the wing, easily outfoxed former United player Aiden Watson, but failed to find anyone with his cross. At the other end referee Weatherall merely spoke to Caddell when he elbowed Watson, surely at least a yellow card offence.

Cutch then found himself in a shooting position but shot straight at the Crues keeper. Although the visitors forced several corners the United defence held firm and with halftime approaching things were looking good. As a hopeful punt came into the box, Gazza's sliced his attempted clearance and Brown under no real pressure dropped the ball at Jordan Owens feet and the Crues player blasted it into the empty net, to give his team an undeserved lead.

2nd half
We had an extra 5 minute break at halftime as the United ground-staff cleared the lines of snow to allow the game to continue and continue it did. Ryan Berry replaced Gavin Taggart for the 2nd half, but yet again it was the visitors who started the brightest and Brown distinguished himself when stopping a Donnelly free kick. The visitors kept the pressure on United and when they tried to break the stranglehold Caddell chopped down Albert and referee Weatherall showed the first yellow card of the day. More cards were to follow but mostly for United players as Weatherall cautioned Gazza, Sparky and Andy, while allowing the visitors to get away with similar fouls.

Manager Walker took off Archie, with Denver taking his place, which necessitated Gazza switching to midfield and Hanly to leftback. Referee Weatherall then committed his biggest gaffe of the day when the Crues keeper came out of his penalty box and clearly handled the ball, an offence which carries a mandatory red card, the biased Belfast official merely flourished a yellow one. Andy Smith drove the resultant free kick against the Crues wall and the chance was lost, surely a dink over the wall was the best option. Worse refereeing was to follow when Coates blatantly took the legs from Andy Smith and not only was no foul given the Crues man pushed Smith to the ground and was allowed to carry the ball out of defence with the referee barely five yards away from the action.

Then with a last throw of the dice Roy took off Mikey and brought on Mo for a rare appearance, with Murray switching to the right and Mo going to the left. United finally got the goal their efforts deserved when Hanly overlapped down the left, cut inside before delivering a beaut of a cross with his right foot and Berry glanced a header into the net for his first competitive goal in a United jersey. It was no more than the Sky Blues deserved and the Crues keeper who had been sneakily wasting time suddenly couldn't wait to get on with it. Cutch wasted a good chance when he fired across goal, before anyone could get on the end of it instead of biding his time. Referee Weatherall only managed to find 2 minutes of stoppage time, even though we'd had the full complement of subs in the 2nd period, but I suppose a draw was a fair result in the end.

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

Man of the match: Nathan Hanly