Ill Wind!

There's an old saying, 'that's an ill wind that doesn't blow some good', there was an 'ill 'wind' at the Showgrounds tonight, which blew United out of the Irn Bru cup and manager Roy Walker out of his job. The manager tended his resignation at the end of the match and his assistant Terry Moore also resigned leaving first team coach Colin Sewell in charge. In their wisdom, the United board appointed Joe McCall the caretaker manager and Sewell as his assistant, memories are short. It an ironic twist, United showed they can play football tonight and surprise, surprise, they can tackle. I can't help feeling that if they had played like that all season, we'd got better results.

In the first half with the wind at their backs they took the match to the Crues and were denied a stonewall penalty when young Lowry was tripped in the box by Leeman, but referee Crangle was hardly going to give the penalty against 'his' team. Tony Kane's free from 30 yards was tipped over by Crues keeper Sean O'Neill. Lowry got his place in the starting line-up due the non-appearance of Jenks and Cutch, when their ferry was cancelled and they had to come by plane. Announcer Davy King informed fans of their arrival midway through the first half, by saying the 'eagles have landed'. United lined up for this match with Archie replacing Rodgers in the back four, Rory and Sparky in midfield in place of Jenks and Archie and Lowry and Baker up front in place of Cutch and the suspended Gavin Taggart.

Rory Carson missed a gilt edged chance when after good work from Lowry he shot weakly at O'Neill, instead of passing to Ally. The linesman at the Fisherwick end of the ground which United were attacking, had a strange read on offsides and pulled Lowry on two occasions when he was well on-side and he was giving the benefit of the doubt to the visitors when there was any dispute about who fouled who. After one blatant decision, United manager Roy Walker had to be restrained by his assistant Terry Moore, but I think he was quite within his rights. Vauls was rightly booked when he was caught on the wrong side of his man and committed the 'professional' foul. The United defence had one scare, when they attempted to play offside and Halliday bore down on goal and Drummond just done enough to put him off. Despite the added three minutes referee Crangle added on for keeper O'Neill's blatant time-wasting, the score remained the same.

2nd half
The 'legacy' of former manager Tommy Wright came back to haunt us moments after the restart, when keeper Wayne Drummond dropped a simple headed back-pass at the feet of Crues Stuart Dallas and he gleefully tapped the ball home for the only goal of the game. United manager Roy Walker rang the changes, firstly he brought on top scorer Cutch for Baker. Then took off Carson and brought on Jenks a virtual passenger and due to an injury, when he was scythed down by Crues sub David Rainey, Vauls had to be replaced by Woods. Surely by that stage we should thrown caution to the wind and brought on Boyd to see if we could anything out of the match.

United had their chances, Ally had hit a shot straight at O'Neill, Jenks thundered through on a Cutch pass and his half hit shot was saved by the keeper. Despite forcing several corners our strikers seemed flat-footed and the chances went abegging. In a great bit of football United's case was easily summed up, when Ally failed to make a telling pass, instead he rolled the ball to O'Neill. In fact the Crues, who had limited themselves to shooting from distance, without troubling Drummond, nearly snatched one at the end of the 3 minutes of added time, Drummond tipping Owen's effort over the bar. The Crues retained possession right at the corner flag and referee Crangle blew his whistle to send his team into the Irn Bru final where they will take on the Coleraine scum.

Drummond (4), Kane (6), Vauls (7)(Sub: Woods 6,), Cookie (6), Archie (6), Rory (6)(Sub: Jenks 6,), Sparky (7), Downey (7) Ally (6), Baker (6)(Sub: Cutch 6,), Lowry (7)

Man of the match: Conor Downey