Tactical Nightmare!

Spike and his backroom staff got their tactics horribly wrong yesterday, playing a 4,3,3 system that never worked in a first half littered with mistakes. Luckily he had the good sense to change it at halftime, bringing Baker off and Ally on and this proved to be the difference. I must pay tribute to our visitors yesterday, Derriaghy Cricket club, for a 'professional' approach which belies their Amateur league status, if they go on progressing we may meet them on a regular basis in years to come. I knew they'd be organised, but despite getting a load of possession in the first half United couldn't take advantage of the openings. Curtis Woods who came in for the suspended Kane had a nightmare first half, his timing and decision making was poor to say the least, no doubt sitting on the bench as he does, he was a little rusty.

But referee Ross Dunlop took a hand in United's early problems, he was especially lenient with the tough tackling of the visitors and surely a yellow card would have settled the match down, but he thought he knew better. It was obvious to me someone was going to get hurt, unfortunately it was Sparky who had got the nod in place of the suspended Gavin. Sparky was the victim of a 'over the top' tackle which should've resulted in a sending off, but Dunlop didn't even give a foul, never minding sending off the culprit. Instead he had the cheek to urge the United physio to take Sparky to the sideline to continue treatment. Sparky came back on, but broke down almost immediately and was replaced by Rory Carson. I was hoping that this was going to make a difference, but Rory was handcuffed to two 'out of form' men in Downey and Jenks in midfield.

How Conor Downey keeps his place at the expense of Carson is difficult to understand, but he seems to be curry favour among the Spike crew. The number of times he got caught in possession yesterday against a team four rungs below us is hard to fathom. His first move is back and that is a recipe for disaster giving our benevolent defending. He was aided and abetted by team Captain Jenks, I know he has no pace, but the visitors were far faster than him and he obviously left his shooting boots behind. Only Jordan Baker knows how he failed to find the target heading over the bar from an Elvis cross, it looked easier to score. Another man who was a virtual passenger yesterday was top scorer Cutch, he's not even taking up attacking positions anymore.

On-loan Johnny Taylor reported a tight hamstring and Archie was drafted in and I was on tenterhooks every time the ball came to him, remembering his disasters at Dergview and Seaview. I was already dreading the visitors getting a goal, because we were devoid of ideas going forward. Despite loads of possession we were creating little but Jenks had our best chance shooting over from 20 yards, a bad miss. The visitors came close from a Rosbotham free kick but Nelson was equal to it. With halftime approaching United spurned a glorious chance to take the lead when Cutch challenged the keeper for a loose ball and it somehow eluded them both and ended up in space. The first man on to it was Elvis but he shot hurriedly straight at the keeper instead of passing to the unmarked Cutch.

That was to prove a costly mistake when right away the visitors mounted an attack and Woods was drawn in to a tackle, no-one backed him up and the visiting winger hit over a hard and low cross which Archie unfortunately turned into his own net. I tell you I was beside myself in anger and frustration at our hapless defending and our all round incompetence. The visitors had hardly had a sniff at goal, but it was they and their supporters, a big number of them in our 'home' stand, obviously free-loaders, that were the happier. I must give credit to our manager here, he never lost his cool, although I suspect he was seething inside, former manager Roy Walker, often lost his cool and blamed everybody but himself, even the supporters, Spike kept his own counsel and he's to be admired for that.

2nd Half
I have no idea what was said at halftime, not much it seems, for United took the field 10 minutes later, a full five minutes before the opposition. Spike made one change with Ally Teggert coming on in place of Baker and immediately we looked like a different outfit. The visitors were still in the ascendency and took a piece of good old fashioned football to wrest this tie in United's favour. There seemed little danger when Woods slung over a cross from the right, but Ally stole in on the far post to plant a header into the net in the hour mark. Eight minutes later Cookie Munster delivered with a free header from a Rory corner to put United 2-1 up. I must confess here I missed this goal, I had to take a quick piss, but 3 minutes later he put a carbon copy over the bar, from another Rory corner, a bad miss. Finally Downey made way for Neil Lowry, which let Rory inside and we began to really tick.

In a move started by Rory, Jenks got a nose to the ball which clattered off the bar and referee Dunlop blew for some infringement or other. Elvis missed another free header from a Rory corner from the left this time and I wasn't starting get a sneaky feeling we had blown it and they would get an equaliser. They must have had that idea too and they started to probe our defensive frailties and we were only too happy to scramble the ball away. Curtis Woods came to our rescue with a last ditch tackle and we survived a late surge when the visitors got two corners. Cutch had a chance to relieve some pressure but he only gave the ball away with Elvis unmarked. In time added on Jenks saved our blushes when he blasted home from close range to make up for his earlier misses and give us a flattering 3-1 scoreline, but it was much closer than that.

Nelson (7), Woods (6), Black (7), Cookie (7), Archie (5), Sparky (6)(Sub: Rory 8,), Downey (5)(Sub: Lowry 6,), Jenks (6), Baker (5)(Sub: Ally 7,), Cutch (5), Elvis (6)

Man of the match: Rory