Diving Bird!

Former United player Oran Kearney, has taught his Coleraine scum players well, they're are credit to him. But unfortunately they are in the wrong sport, they should be Olympic divers and in referee Andy Hunter they had a willing accomplice. This referee had already proved to United earlier in the season he's not afraid to make up his own rules, when penalising United's Archie Stewart when the ball got stuck in his 'groin area', giving an indirect free to Linfield, instead of the usual bounce ball. He was not to be outdone yesterday, when he issued yellow cards to the scum scorers Stephen Lowry and Curtis Allen when they should've been red and was bluffed when Sparky's mistimed tackle on the diving Ciaran Clark, which should've brought a yellow card and issued a red card instead.

The histrionics of the scum player was plain to see, when he went down 'screaming like a stuck pig', you would have thought that player will never walk again. But it was all 'bluff', Sparky made no contact with the player, the intent was there and it was not 'two-footed' as was stated in reports, it was a clumsy high foot tackle and the ball was there to be won. Contrast that with Lowry's professional foul on Rory Carson when he was the last man and the referee 'reluctantly' booked him and after Allen 'butted' Cookie Munster after they had tangled. Cookie was also booked, but I thought head butting was a red card offence but obviously not in 'make the rules up as you go along' Hunter's eyes.

As we were travelling to the match we got the dreaded news on twitter, that Gavin Taggart not Ally Teggert was in the team. I hoped it was a misprint, but when I arrived at the ground my worst fears were realised, it was indeed Gavin and not Ally who on the team. Ally may have been injured or sick, 'twitter' which is a mind of pretty useless information at any-time was conspicuous by it's silence on the matter. Was it tactics by stand-in manager Joe McCall, if it was surely Ally was worth a place on the bench, but no he was in the stand. Maybe Joe was facing facts, we have been second best to the scum for a long time now, but surely he has better players at his disposal than Gavin Taggart. Gavin has messed up so many times, he's just an accident waiting to happen and he didn't disappoint yesterday.

United with strong wind at their backs started brightly but they tended to hit their passes too firm and couldn't get many clear-cut openings. The scum had obviously done their homework on our keeper's tendency to drop the odd ball, with their shoot on sight policy but Wayne, was on his game (sorry for the slight pun) and dealt comfortably with them all. The strong wind was playing havoc and it was not conductive to good football and you knew mistakes was going to play a big part in it. The home team were trying to push up and former scum player Dicky Vauls, played a ball up the line for Carson to chase. The last scum player was Stephen Lowry he took the United man out and ironically Rory I think had no chance of getting to the ball.

In these situations the referee's job is simple, he has to decide was a genuine attempt to get the ball, which it wasn't and then if isn't, it's a red card, but he decided it was yellow. But he had already failed to book Ciaran Clarke for a late tackle on Archie and chose to lecture Allen for a deliberate elbow on Cookie, 'make up the rules as you go along' was definitely living up to his name. We at 'Sport have been saying our player's are not up to standard and this was epitomised yesterday when Jenks was a virtual passenger, contributed nothing to the team, a real disappointment. Cutch tried to bend a shot but missed and then tried a left shot when he had time to pick his spot.

Ten minutes before halftime and the United midfield not doing their job Sparky decided to take a hand and go for a tackle, which luckily he missed, but that bluffer Clarke went down crying for his mammy and the referee flourished the red card. When Clarke 'trotted' off the pitch, Oran Kearney couldn't resist a 'smirk' and congratulated the player on a job well done. Then five minutes later Cookie and Allen tangled and Allen sunk his head at the United player but only saw yellow. In retrospect maybe the referee should have sent them both packing but that was never going to happen. The United midfield where Sparky was only star was decimated and it was obvious a change would have to made, well it was obvious to me and there were three candidates, Jenks, Gavin and Downey.

2nd half
First team coach Colin Sewell came out at the halftime interval and engaged sub Jordan Baker in conservation and I thought he was coming on at halftime, obvious in place of Jenks, Gavin or Downey. But United took the field with the same ten and then five minutes into the half brought on Baker for Rory Carson. Carson, I thought was having a good game, surely it should have been Jenks who was contributing nothing or Gavin or Downey. In fact I think that was the wrong move, what we needed was to strengthen the midfield by bringing say Chris Rodgers, it was still scoreless at that stage but that was about to change.

Gavin Taggart whose first move is back had a hand the goal that broke the deadlock, he had a chance to clear his lines but he chose to bring the ball across the field. He could've have passed to Kane on the touchline but he chose to pass back to Cookie. All was not lost at this stage, Cookie could have simply tried to get the ball away and not be blamed, but in a rush of blood he tried to step inside, got dispossessed by scum player Jennings, who in turn found Lowry and he beat Drummond from close range to put the scum ahead. It was a goal that should never have been, when you are down to ten men you cannot make any deliberate mistakes, you take the safety first route, kick the ball into touch for petes sake.

We were under the cosh for long spells in the second half, but it must be stated it was all our own fault, we had given the impetus to the scum by our suicide football and we were reaping the benefits. Wayne Drummond kept us in the match by some smart saves and the woodwork came to our rescue a couple of times. Curtis Allen, who should have been in the dressing room, was tormenting Archie and unlike his father Alfie, Archie was devoid of ideas to stop him, by fair means or foul. Only Allen knows how he missed with a free header which looked easier to score and he hit the crossbar with a thunderous shot, when he really should have scored.

United I thought had their best spell of attack in this phase and Cutch seemed to time his run to perfection only for the linesman's flag to go up. I would like to have seen that on replay, but Coleraine is obviously too far for the camera crews to travel at holiday time. With 15 minutes left Archie was caught out again by a ball over the top and Allen drilled a low shot from 12 yards past Drummond. Joe rang the changes taking off Downey and bringing on Neil Lowry and Jenks was replaced by Woods, but it was too little too late for we were dead and buried. I honestly didn't expect Joe to be an inspiration, but I thought he would have more savvy than this. It's an unenviable task, we have few players that are up to scratch, but Joe has been too long at the Showgrounds now not to realise that Gavin Taggart is a liability.

The interviews for the new manager are taking place this Wednesday and if any of the candidates took in this fixture they'll know what a mammoth task they are taking on. Sky Blue Sport in it's preview of this match reckoned of our back four of Vauls, Cookie, Archie and Kane, only Vauls and Cookie were good enough. Due to his tendency to implode I think Cookie is not good enough as well. With Sparky out serving a one game ban, we only have Rory and Ally, if fit, to call upon for the visit of D.C. on Saturday, Jenks, Downey and Gavin are are a liability. Baker, who come on as a sub, as usual flattered to deceive, but we have no-one else to take the weight of Cutch, who not at his best, is still is the 'best' player we have. All in all I can take little heart from this display, the referee and the diving bird sure fixed us good, but we played a part in our own destruction, in short, we shot ourself in the foot!

Drummond (7), Kane (4), Vauls (6), Cookie (4), Archie (5), Taggart (4), Downey (4)(Sub: Lowry 5,),Sparky (6), Carson (6)(Sub: Baker (5), Jenks (3)(Sub: Woods 5,), Cutch (7)

Man of the match: Wayne Drummond