Windsor Blues!

United fought out a hard earned scoreless draw at Windsor Park today and as forecast in Sky Blue Sport, they rarely got a break all day. Only referee Turkington knows how he failed to give United a penalty, when winger Eamon Murray had his legs clipped from under him as he sprinted into the opposition box. This of course was just one of many examples of the biased nature of the referee's decisions. Ten minutes earlier Murray Murray had crossed to the middle of the six-yard box, where a Linfield defender blatantly passed the ball back to keeper Alan Blaney, but the referee allowed play to continue. Of course it's quite possible that the back-pass rule doesn't apply to the I.F.A. team (sorry Linfield), unless of course it happens at the other end of the pitch.

Manager Roy Walker gave a debut to on-loan signing Neil McCafferty (Caff to us) and he had a good game, taking most of United's free kicks, an added bonus. With Dwayne Nelson out with a broken bone in his elbow, Ryan Brown returned between the sticks and after nervy start did a good job in the end. In fact besides Brown, the only change from the team who took the field at the Oval was Caff for Berry. Linfield looked menacing early on, forcing 3 corners in a row and the nervy United defence was glad to survive intact. Thompson (how did he ever get to play for Norn Iron), missed with a header on the one and only occasion all day that he got free of big Denver.

This was a bad miss and a few minutes later McAllister hit the post, but credit to Brown here for getting his angles right. In a rare United attack as I stated earlier a menacing cross from Murray was calmly played back to keeper Blaney by a home defender, but the referee saw no harm in it. Too many of United's attacks broke down today due to poor passing and the biggest culprit in this area was top scorer Cutch. The number of times he found himself in the clear but chose the wrong option and gave the ball away cheaply. United's first shot on target was from new boy Caff, as he swivelled on the edge of the box, but his right foot shot was straight into the midriff of Blaney.

Sparky came close with a shot later on but unfortunately could only find the side-netting with Blaney stranded. Then came the 'missed' penalty when referee Turkington completely ignored a deliberate trip on Eamon Murray as the winger dribbled into the Linfield box. It wasn't that the referee was unsighted either as he was less than ten yards away from the incident, but he indicated that Murray had fell, but why should he as he was through on goal. As halftime approached a nice bit of interplay between Caff, Sparky, Murray and Andy broke down when Cutch failed to react to Andy's through ball.

2nd half
United, as is their wont, took a little time to settle in the 2nd period but soon began to raid up the left flank. After an attack broke down we witnessed more biased refereeing when Archie was penalised when he rose to head a ball and two minutes later when Armstrong committed the same foul on Andy play was allowed to continue. The 'out-of-sorts' Murray was replaced by Gazza, which meant Sparky switching to rightback and Mikey to right midfield and then United began to exert more emphasis in midfield, but still couldn't find the vital breakthrough. Andy was running around 'like a headless chicken', but manager Walker seemed reluctant to substitute him. If at times he would've chased down what he thought were poor passes instead of ranting at his team-mates, we might've got something out of this game.

Manager Walker finally took off Andy with reserve striker Matthew Boyd coming on. Young Matt almost made an instant mark, but unfortunately shot wide when well placed. The United manager took off the tired Caff and brought on George Young and his fresh legs helped our cause immensely. United were denied a bare-faced corner, when Cutch wriggled through the ageing home defence and his cross-shot was diverted wide of the goal by Blaney, but instead of a corner referee Turkington gave a goalkick. Linfield sub Munster flashed a shot over the bar and Garrett dragged one wide as the match went into to stoppage time. Lee Colligan then almost made up for his late 'miss' at the Oval on Tuesday night, when he burst through the home defence, but his shot was diverted for a corner.

The fourth official held up the board which read four minutes, no doubt adding on a little after Albert and a Linfield forward had had to receive treatment. The home team laid siege to our goal, but the back four of Sparky, Albert, Denver and Archie ably backed up by keeper Ryan, deservedly held out. In virtually the last kick of the ball Garret found himself in space on the right, but drove his shot wide. When the final whistle was sounded the United fans were on their feet and applauded the team for a good five minutes. United manager Roy Walker joined his team in front of the North stand and it was very obvious that they were a happy bunch, maybe now we have boys 'really' playing for the shirt!

Brown (6), Mikey (7), Archie (8), Albert (8), Denver (8), Murray (6)(Sub: Gazza 8,), Caff (8)(Sub: Young 7,), Sparky (7), Colligan (8), Andy (6)(Sub: M. Boyd 7,), Cutch (6)

Man of the match: Denver Gage