Bumpy Landing!

After the euphoria of results in the last few weeks United's supporters were brought down to earth with a bump by this draw at home to Lisburn Distillery. United 'missed' enough chances to have the points safely wrapped up but they conceded two soft goals and all the old uncertainties of leaking goals are still there. Admittedly referee Colin Burns blatantly ignored the 'rules' by not stopping play when Cookie suffered a head injury in the build-up to their second goal, but the United defence was nowhere to be seen. Spike made just one change from his starting line-up from last time, Tony Kane in for the suspended Jenks. I think Kane is a rightback, he performed heroically last week when he came on at Newry, but that was different, we were up against it and I think he wasn't as effective yesterday.

The Linesman at the Fisherwick end where United were attacking in the first half worryingly failed to flag three times when United players were offside although nothing came of them, but I was concerned for the 2nd half. United took the lead on 29 minutes when Cutch out on the right found Elvis who in turn found Alan Davidson on the edge of the box and he rifled a shot into the net for his 2nd goal in a Sky Blue shirt and on his home debut. The United lead was short-lived however when five minutes later the Whites Alan Thompson fell under a challenge, which resulted in referee Burns awarding the visitors a soft penalty. I think Thompson should've have been booked for simulation but that's never going to happen in the Irish league. Cooling's spot kick hit the post and as luck would have it, hit the prone Nelson on the head for a bizarre own goal.

United to their credit didn't let this setback unfaze them and went on the attack again. I feel I must say something here about the enigmatic Elvis, at times he was brilliant, at other times he was useless. United got their noses in front once again in the 42 minute, when Davidson played a delightful ball into the box and Cutch brought the ball under control and hammered his 30th goal of the season. United were rampant at this stage and Elvis came in for some rough treatment when Whites player Pat McShane blatantly kicked him when he went up for a high ball, which left United fans calling for the ultimate punishment, a red card, but alas it was only yellow. Elvis will no doubt have a big bruise on his thigh this morning as result of this foul tackle, but I suppose it's just part of a footballers lot.

2nd half
United frittered away chance after chance to make the game safe and only Elvis knows how he missed an open goal, it seemed easier to score than miss. This was the last straw for Spike and he subbed him a few moments later bring on young Jamie Davidson. Former United player David Cushley brought the best out of United keeper Nelson, who palmed away his powerful shot from the edge of the box, a warning for United. Next it was young Jamie's turn to miss a god chance when he looked odds on to score and not to be undone Rory Carson shot just over when well placed. At the other end the visitors come close to levelling the match when Ligget headed just over from a corner. United's Chris Rodgers went down injured in the build-up to this chance and referee Burns told to him to get off the field if he wanted treatment.

Chris decided to carry on and when the ball went dead he went down again, but referee Burns invited him to go the touchline, which he duly did but it was obvious to everyone in the ground he was truly hurt and indeed had to be substituted. Gavin Taggart replaced Rodgers with Kane moving to rightback. United failed to take advantage when the ball was ping ponging in the visitors penalty area and this miss was to prove costly. The visitors were on the attack when Cookie received a blow to the head, but the referee didn't stop the game, obviously there's some new directive, don't allow physios on the field and don't stop the game if their is a head injury, or was referee Burns just as incompetent as the rest of his overpaid comrades. At any rate play was allowed to continue and when a cross took a deflection off Ross Black it fell kindly for Alan 'she fell over' Thompson to steer the ball past Nelson in the United goal.

Spike brought on Lowry for the tiring Alan D, it's what I'm going to call Alan Davidson but try as we might we couldn't get the victory and had to settle for a draw. I must confess to feeling a wee bit disappointed, true there was not the drama of last week's victory at Newry, but we had a job to do and couldn't do it. No doubt Spike and his team will take some positives from the result, but I feel we should be condemning teams like Distillery to defeat, not giving them a lifeline as we did in this game. Just heard the news we have given new contracts to three players, Tony Kane, youngsters Jamie D and Neil Lowry and Johnny Taylor has signed a pre-contract agreement, which will keep them at the Showgrounds till 2014, all I can say is, bring on the Linfield!

Nelson (7), Rodgers (6)(Sub: Gavin 6,), Black (6), Cookie (6), Taylor (7), Carson (7), Kane (6), Alan D (8)(Sub: Lowry 6,), Ally (6), Elvis (6)(Sub: Jamie D 6,), Cutch (8)

Man of the match: Alan D