New Broom!

It is said 'a new broom sweeps clean', United showed little evidence of that at Stangmore Park last. They were disjointed, and were outplayed by the hosts and their new manager, Rodney McAree (son of Joe, who was erroneously reported in Sky Blue Sports news as being the manager), should have got off to a winning start. United's stand-in manager, Joe McCall, made two changes from the starting line-up, bringing in Cutch and Jenks at the expense of Baker, who didn't even make the bench and young starlet Neil Lowry, who did. But it was another man who made the bench, Gavin Taggart, which caused the small bunch of United fans to be saying, the same old, same old.

Dungannon should have taken the lead as early as the 6th minute when from a corner, which surprise, surprise, United didn't deal with properly, Topley found himself unmarked in the six-yard box, but luckily he blasted over the bar, with the goal at his mercy. United's ploy of playing one man up front was 'bread an butter' for the home defence. The United goal survived as the Swifts totally dominated and Topley missed another sitter and then brought a good save from Drummond. The best United could muster was a Downey shot well wide and an Archie header over the bar. In our preview of the match Sky Blue Sport's voiced their concern over the appointment of local referee Mark Courtney. The concerns were justified when he cautioned Cookie in 5 minutes for an innocuous foul and midway through the half he gave Topley a good talking to for a deliberate elbow, as biased as a bowling ball.

Tony Kane, preferred to Woods (neither of them are good enough), was having a terrible time, epitomised by one gaffe. The home team played a cross-field ball, which Tony had time to deal with, but he seemed to think it was going out of play and Dungannon winger McCaffrey retrieved the ball easily. Tony recovered the ball, but I think the referee made a mistake, for it was a tackle from behind, but Tony got away with it. Archie was having a torrid time as well with former United player Mike Ward, but he tended to give him too much room and Mike, as he we know thrives on space. United held out to halftime and I was hoping Joe would change things, but I suspected if he did, it wouldn't be for the best. Dungannon really is a dirty hole and this was totally brought home to me in the halftime interval. I paid a visit to the toilets and went to wash my hands, but no water, but then again what do you expect from them, we are in the sticks after all.

2nd half
United showed some purpose in the second half and Ally tested the keeper when he and Vauls unlocked the Swifts defence, but Ally's right-foot shot was easily tipped over by the keeper. Rory Carson, a disappointment, had made way for Neil Lowry and United started to exert some pressure on the home team. Then the 'cheating referee' lent a hand, when after a surging run by Archie, who was fouled about 28 yards from goal, but he was allowed to carry on and found the unmarked Cutch who scored, only for Courtney, to give the foul on Archie. But the strange thing was, he didn't book the perpetrator and he gave the foul in the wrong place, just in the D, when it happened about 5 yards beyond that. Tony Kane, who had already 'missed' from two free-kicks didn't disappoint, shooting over the bar.

Joe made another substitution, taking off Downey and bring on, you've guessed it, Gavin Taggart. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot, this was a suicide mission if ever I saw one and he didn't disappoint. Then in the 88th minute, Cutch did what he does best, conjured up a goal from nothing as he wriggled his way past his maker before shooting into the net for his 18th league goal. It should have been the winner, but we knew in our 'heart of hearts' that there was one more sting in the tail. First off the referee added on 3 minutes of stoppage time even though we had only 5 subs and Joe missed a trick by not making a change in stoppage time. Still we should have held out, but Gavin got caught in possession and Cookie was forced to concede a corner. When the ball came over Jenks appeared to head into the area to the unmarked Conor Faulkner and he duly scored, to tie the match up. There was no further scoring and we had snatched a draw from the jaws of victory, same old, same old!

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

Man of the match: Cutch