Black Saturday!

No I haven't got my dates mixed up, I do realise that the real 'black' Saturday is two weeks away, but today we had our very own 'Black' Saturday. I refer course to United players Aaron & Ross Black, Aaron got himself sent off and Ross back-heeled ball which he should've booted away and presented Glenavon with a lifeline, which they surely took. It was also a 'Black day' for returning hero Kevin 'killer' Kelbie, when he 'late tackled' Mark 'Sparky' Surgenor, in full view of the main stand and referee Smith and his assistant. It should've been an automatic red card, but referee Smith added insult to injury by letting Kelbie off with a caution. Sparky meanwhile wasn't so lucky, he was stretchered off, with a suspected broken leg or at best a ligament injury, which will keep out the game for months and cause considerable pain, Kelbie on the other hand seemed to think it was a laugh.

United manager Roy Walker had brought in two defenders to his starting line-up and made three positional changes. He brought in Davey 'cookie' Munster to partner Archie, who had started at leftback last Saturday, moved Rodgers to rightback to cover for the suspended Kane and moved Sparky into centre midfield for the injured Conor Downey. We got off to a dream start, taking the lead in two minutes from a free-kick. Archie delivered it, Jordan Baker headed to Cutch and the wee man slammed it into the net. Three minutes later we were ecstatic, when Cutch fed Teggart and from his pin point cross Baker doubled our lead. Suddenly we were leading 2-0 and we'd hardly strung two passes together. In the first Glenavon attack the eagle eyed linesman held his flag up for offside and I thought to myself we had got an official who up 'to the mark', I couldn't have been more wrong.

That linesman never got a decision right after that, in their next attack there was two Glenavon men 5 yards offside, but he kept his flag down. The visitors got three corners that should have been by balls and if there was a doubt about a decision they got it. I have to say at this point that the visitors may have been two goals down, but they were the better team by far. United struggled in defence and especially at set-pieces and I thought it's only matter of time before our goal was breeched. Elvis Costello, who had the man of match last Saturday, was having a 'stinker' and how he wasn't substituted is beyond my comprehension, as the Glenavon defenders had him in their pockets. After we had been pinned in our half for 25 minutes we finally broke and Jenks was tripped in the box and a penalty was awarded.

Nobody seemed willing to take on the job of taking the kick, which makes me think it wasn't decided before hand, but Cutch had the 'guts' to take on the responsibility. Visiting keeper Coleman, dived the wrong way and we were 3-0 ahead. But to their credit the visitors kept plugging away and after 37 minutes all my fears were realised when from a corner kick, visiting central defender Haughey rose unchallenged to head the ball into the net, despite us having every man back. Two minutes later the linesman awarded the visitors a corner when it was an obvious by ball and when the defence only partly cleared the ball, we had nobody up front to receive it and the linesman missed another offside and it fell nicely to Kelbie and he rattled the ball into the net to make 3-2.

But Kevin wasn't finished, no not by a long chalk, when Sparky picked up the ball near the halfway line and played a pass, Killer Kelbie came in with a scything tackle which left poor Sparky writhing in agony and Kelbie added insult to injury by sneering. The man with the big reputation, Aaron Black, came on to replace Sparky and he was only on the pitch two minutes when he attempted almost a carbon copy of the Kelbie foul and promptly got himself booked, although the visiting player certainly made a meal of it. The referee added 3 minutes of injury to the proceedings and though we had lost impetus, we still clung on to our lead 3-2 lead when the halftime whistle sounded.

2nd Half
Three minutes into the half Aaron Black came in with a two-footed tackle and that was end of the match for him, a second yellow leading to red. The match was really turned on it's head now and it was a matter of United trying to hold out and the visitors trying everything to break us down. Midway through the half we had a huge slice of luck when a shot from a Glenavon player come back off the crossbar with the keeper beaten all ends up. On the odd occasions when we did start to mount an attack, the ball would eventually find it's way to Elvis and then the move would peter out. Surely Roy would see that and take him off and bring on fresh legs in the shape off Aaron Boyd. With 20 minutes left we were ready to make a substitution but it wasn't to be Boyd, no in fact it was Rory Carson getting ready.

I reasoned that we were going push Baker up front and move Carson on to the wing, imagine my dismay when we came to make the substitution and Ally Teggart's number was held up. Carson took up a central midfield role and Elvis went to the wing where he was even more crap. I knew we would get one chance at goal and if we take it the points were ours and lo and behold we did get that chance. Well it really was only a half chance, but it was a chance. The ball was played up to Cutch and he got the better of his marker but elected to try to chip the keeper and he missed. Surely it would it have been better to try a shot, at least that way the keeper has to earn his keep (pardon the pun).

But it was mostly backs to the wall for we had decided to let them have space in their own half and despite a few scares, it was working very well. Now call me old-fashioned, but I think when your reduced to ten men, you have go to three at the back, four in midfield and two strikers that are prepared to run their socks off, that way you give the opposition something to think about. But I say it was working well but then disaster struck 2 minutes from normal time. We seemed to have dealt with the initial attack on our left flank and Ross Black whether wanting to impress tried a back-heel, instead slogging the ball out and Glenavon seized on the opportunity and Henderson tied the scores up at 3-3. To say I was gutted was to make an understatement, I felt sick to the pit of stomach. I endured the two minutes of normal time and 3 minutes of stoppage and went down to 'boo' Killer Kelbie off, but it left a sour taste in my mouth, for it my 'hearts of hearts' I know we were damn lucky to get any points, in short we were never at the races!

Kerr (6), Rodgers (8), R. Black (5), Cookie (7), Archie (6), Baker (8) Sparky (6)(Sub: A. Black, 4,), Jenks (6). Teggart (7)(Sub: Carson 6,), Cutch (8), Elvis (5)

Man of Match: Jordan Baker