I.F.A. Triumphant!

Linfield are the I.F.A., Linfield are the I.F.A., so goes the supporters chant and it was never better illustrated than at the Showgrounds today. When the teams took the field after the halftime interval referee Hunter (or Linfield's 12th man), had a word with the 'fat baldy controller' and assured him the result was surely his. He made sure he fulfilled his promise giving a decision, which is best dubious and at the worst downright cheating. Archie Stewart went for a tackle in the box, the ball got caught between his legs and the referee gave an indirect free to the I.F.A., which they duly scored, job done. I have followed football for nigh on fifty years and every time I've seen this incident on the football field, it's resulted in a bounce ball, referee Hunter (or as I call him cheat), chose to go against the rules of the game.

It's was obvious from the start we were not going to get a level playing field, as Linfield were allowed to take the free-kicks and throw-ins from wherever they pleased and the referee or linesmen couldn't care less. As expected United manager Roy Walker gave débuts to his two most recent signings, Liam Watson and Dick Vauls, Tony Kane returned at rightback and Ross Black moved up to wide midfield. Gavin Taggart retained his place alongside Jenks and Sparky made a welcome return to midfield. Disaster struck for United prior to the kick-off, when joint top scorer Jordan Baker got injured in the warm-up and had to be replaced by Elvis, to partner Cutch, leaving United with only four subs to pick from. I think it was fair to say that United had the better of the early exchanges for the champions kept playing the 'long ball' and their fans showed their disgust for this fare with lowest travelling crowd I've seen for this fixture, 1160 souls.

The I.F.A. bring usually the biggest crowds at the Showgrounds, but this was paltry, roll on the home match with the Glens is all I can say. The cheat set out his stall early on, when the I.F.A. wanted to take a dubious free-kick from the wrong place United Tony Kane collided with an I.F.A. player and got booked (he was lucky, the cheat sent him off last time for going for the ball., but that's another story). Contrast this to when I.F.A. player McAllister elbowed Liam Watson (a sending offence), the cheat didn't take any action. I been saying in my column that we don't do the basics, don't mark throw-ins and don't defend set-pieces well. Well we're getting better at set-pieces, there was only one dicey situation today, when I.F.A. Gault got a free header, but missed the target.

Dwayne Nelson made a smart save from a Garret free-kick and at the other end no United player could get on the end of Ross Black cross. United were playing all right but then disaster struck, they failed to deal with a through ball and the ball fell invitingly to Carvill on the edge of box and he scored a beauty in the top corner beating Nelson all ends up. United didn't let their heads drop and Jenks had bad luck on two occasions, first when he picked up a loose ball and shot goalwards with keeper Blaney scrambling, but just missing the post and then on the stroke of halftime, he met a Ross Black corner with his head, only to have headed off the line, although it looked like the defender was behind the goal-line, but you never going to get decision like that against the I.F.A.

2nd Half
United were under the cosh it's true to say for most of this half, but they did have breakaways, but didn't make the most of them. The linesman at the Farm Lodge end flagged for I.F.A. Patterson being offside, but got a telling off from the cheat and decided to keep his flag down from then on. This should resulted in a goal for the I.F.A. when Carvill, at least 3 yards offside, got a free run-in to the United goal but his shot bounced off the post. Roy Walker decided to make a change and it was obvious to me who he should taken off, Elvis or Gavin Taggart, but surprised me by taking off Ross Black and bringing on Mike Smith 2. In a rare United attack Sparky made his way into the opposition box, where he was blatantly obstructed, but the cheat waved play on.

The United manager then took Taggart off, replacing him with Eamon Murray, but it was the I.F.A. who still looked the more dangerous. They should've scored when Rory Patterson found himself in the box, but his thunderbolt shot just crashed off the bar. Was our luck in, could we get back into the game, could we somehow carve the I.F.A. defence open. Due to injury to Dick Vauls, Denver had come on, with Archie moving to leftback, but we were still well in the game and we were starting to believe that we could get something out of it. The the 'fat baldly controller' played his trump card and the cheat gave an indirect free-kick. Before the kick could be taken Dwayne Nelson rushed from his goal to make sure the kick was taken from the right place and the cheat promptly booked the United player. All you can do as a player in that situation is to hit hard and low and Garret of the I.F.A. did that and hit off Denver and into the net.

The fat baldy controller gave the cheat the thumbs up sign and that I thought was that. I must admit I felt numb I couldn't take in what I just witnessed, it was the second time in less than 24 hours I was struck dumb, the first time was when Steve Davis struck that a disastrous back-pass against Serbia, but this time was different, this time I knew we had been cheated and there's not a damn thing we can do about it. I felt sorry for the whole team, but especially Archie, who had done nothing wrong and Denver who had got the last touch. But we weren't finished yet and when Archie overlapped and sent a cross to far post, Jenks got on the end to send a looping header which eluded Blaney and Cutch, a mile offside, headed the ball into the net. Could we rescue a point I wondered, but I knew the answer immediately I posed the question, we don't have the players hungry enough to do what needs to done, in short we have no team ethos, we have no get and go!

Nelson (7), Kane (7), Vauls (7)(Sub: Denver,7) , Watson (8), Archie (7), Sparky (7), Jenks (8), Gavin (6)(Sub: Eamon 6,), Black (6)(Sub: Smith 6, , Elvis (5), Cutch (7)

Man of the match: Alan Jenkins