Carbon Copy!

United 'gifted' the hatchet men a goal after the thirty seconds after a defensive mistake involving Gavin Taggart, Archie and keeper Dwayne Nelson. As if that's not bad enough, the defensive frailties highlighting in Sky Blue Sport's preview of this game, were evident in 28th minute again, when in a 'carbon' copy of a Colin Nixon goal for Glens on Tues night, Morrow from Crues was giving a 'free header' from a corner on right, with the inevitable conclusion. But a minute previous referee Burns had denied United a 'stonewall' penalty when Elvis had his legs clipped as he cut into the box and if to add insult to injury Crues broke away and Ross Black just managed to divert a cross for the corner under pressure.

Spike had made two changes, out went Baker and Ally and in came Rory Carson and on-loan Johnny Taylor, I think I'll call him J.T. It's was not hard to see what our tactics were going to be, starting 5 defenders and Gavin, whose first movement is usually back. United lost the toss (or did we elect to kick-off, I worry about some of Captain Jenks decisions, playing against the stiff breeze in the first half on Tues night was at best foolhardy). But anyway we kicked off, the ball came back to Gavin, he found Archie, he dithered and Crues David Rainey, belying his 45 years, put him under pressure, Archie who had other options available, the tenth row of the stand comes to mind, decided to try and find his keeper Dwayne. The back-pass was not good and with Rainey bearing down on him, Dwayne hit the ball against the Crues player(he could have played to touch I think) and it broke kindly for him and he gave his team the lead, although there was a suspicion of handball, the goal stood.

We were shell shocked, to concede so early and from such a mix-up left a bad taste in the mouth of the normal complacent United fans and we were on the teams back right away. Spike and the two baldies had decided on a 3,5,2 formation and it was not working but they had no control over referee Colin Burns interpretation of the rules, as he let his namesake 'Colin' Coates and Leeman get away with coming 'over the top'. Now I know this is not the easiest decision to make (I'm joking here), the culprit is one out ten times the opposing player making a 'back' for the defender, but referee Burns seemed to be of the opinion that our players were making making a 'back' for them every time. It was obvious a change would have to made, we were defending too deep and Crues almost increased their lead when Cookie was beat with a clever back-heel, but Gavin got back to tackle Dallas and the ball rebounded for a goal-kick.

Spike took off Archie and brought on Neil Lowry and we tried to get back into the match, but referee Burns was having none of it. I used to rate referees but I stopped that practice for it was a waste of time, no-one ever got above 5 out of 10 and there were quite a few twos and threes. I think if I was to start it again, there would be a quite a lot of minuses and referee Burns would be a prime candidate. How he missed the blatant trip on Elvis, he had the same view as me but he never questioned it. The Crues broke down the field and with us feeling badly done to, we didn't do our defensive job and let Morrow get a free header and suddenly we were two down. Two minutes later referee Burns turned his 'blind eye' when Cutch was floored in box, but even he couldn't 'miss' a deliberate handball from Leeman, although no card was flourished.

Despite the protests from the Crusaders players who were rightly incensed at this turn of events (I'm joking again), they had gotten away with two blatant 'penalties' before, so why not a third time. The penalty stood and the Irish league leading goalscorer Cutch was given the task of reducing the leeway. Cutch placed the ball on the spot and fans were remembering the last time he faced SO'N the former United goalkeeper and his feeble attempt was saved. But there was no worries this time, despite 'guessing' the right way SO'N was beaten all ends up. That goal came in the 39th minute and United were dominant for the rest of the half and the 3 minutes of added time which took them up to the whistle.

2nd half
United bossed the second half and in Elvis they had the best player on the field. Crues boss, Steven Mr. Ugly Baxter rung the changes taking off McKeown,Dallas and Aiden Watson, obviously with a view on next weeks Irn Bru final against the Coleraine scum. Elvis showed his box of tricks to Coates and arguably the best defender in the Irish league, Coates, couldn't deal with him. The United equaliser ten minutes into the half came about when Elvis won a corner on the left. Rory, who seemed to be our designated corner kick taker last night, took the kick and it went for another corner on the right. Rory trotted across and his corner was played back to him and he cut inside and found Cookie with a pass and his shot found the net. Cookie obviously likes to play in the Shore Road venue, two of his 3 goals this season have come against the Crues on their own pitch. The rest of the match was a catalogue of United pressure and last 'ditch' defending by the Crues.

The United attack was in the ascendency but they couldn't get the killer pass that would tell the tale. Elvis, who has yet to open his Ballymena scoring account tested SO'N when he somehow got the better of Coates and Leeman to get a shot in, but SO'N was equal to it pushing the shot over the bar. Neil Lowry, was finding a bit of space down the right and Crues fullback McBride was finding him a hot handful. Crues were not without there moments and as Gavin tidied up he was caught with an 'over the top' challenge from Crues sub Gargan and referee Burns administered the red card. I think it was a harsh decision, after all the referee ignored blatant fouls in the first half and Gargan was obviously trying to impress his manager that he was a regular 'hatchet man'. But he had to go but the Crues held out for a draw and United were obviously feeling the effects from the match on Tues night and it was taking a toll on their energy levels, bad planning to get 2 matches within three days and then no match for 11 days, how will we cope.

I must stress a point about United corners, no reflection on Rory Carson as such. The number of times I have noticed this season when we take a corner to the far post, we never position a man wide and I believe it's an opportunity missed. When many years ago and we had two wingers, when a corner was taken from one wing (inevitably an in swinger),that winger would take up a position wide on the other wing. If the ball was long he got it and if was falling short he could come in, I would like to see us use this ploy, but maybe it's too obvious, my tactical days are long past, if they ever were. The defending at throw-ins need to be worked on as well, the number of times Crues were allowed a 'free' throw last night was criminal. We managed to avoid defeat and that's no bad thing, we let in two goals which could've been avoided, but that's par for the course this season!

Nelson (6), Kane (6), Black (6), Cookie (7), J.T. (7), Archie (5)(Sub: Lowry (7), Gavin (7), Jenks (6), Rory (7), Cutch (7), Elvis (8)

Man of the match: Elvis