Normal Service!

After Monday's nights blitz at the hands of the IFA, normality returned to Warden Street today, when United defeated the hatchet-men of Crusaders by two goals to one. We at 'Sport forget to mention that we needed a strong ref today, but we got a weak one and one completely biased to the point of blatantly cheating. With the unavailability of the injured Jamie, manager Spike gave a start to Elvis 'Susan bap' Costello and with the return of Cush, jigged things up a bit with Mike Ruddy in left midfield in a 4,4,1,1 formation that seemed to work when the boys got used to it. Referee Carvill was at his most biased and this was emphasised when he blew his whistle when a Crues player was injured, despite United being in an attacking position deep in the Crues half. As it turned out the player was only 'bluffing' and was able to continue unlike United's Mike Ruddy later in the game, who lay writhing on the ground, while the referee ignored him and Ruddy had to helped off and substituted, when the linesman at the Fisherwick end flagged for an offside.

This linesman at the Fisherwick end was flag happy in the first half, when United were attacking their favourite goals, the minute the Crues defence called for an offside he stuck his flag up without hesitation and he got it wrong on at least two occasions and in the second half, he 'missed' two blatant offsides and flagged for just one which was marginal. I can live with the linesman being poor, I know its not an easy job, but at least be consistent. United started brightly and the orders from Spike must have been 'shoot on sight', for Cush and Alan D whenever they got any space, fired at will. I think Crues keeper, Sean O'Neill, one of four ex-United players in the Crues line-up, had to save just one from Alan D, as for the rest they were high, wide and not very handsome. O'Neill angered our long serving ball boy, Paul (Paul is an institution at United), when he threw the ball over the bar and Paul had to retrieve it. Later on Paul exacting his revenge, when he left a ball near the corner flag and Sean had to go retrieve it, score one for the good guys.

Tony Kane, who had otherwise a good game, decided to throw the ball back to Dwayne in the United goal, a ploy we have seldom used and I think Dwayne was surprised by this move. That be as it may, Dwayne lost his footing and miskicked presenting another former player Gary 'the traitor' McCutcheon, with the ball and he duly scored. That goal came in the 25 minute and it was a goal that could've been avoided, there was no need to involve Dwayne in the throw-in, the old adage bears true, when in doubt, throw it up the line. United almost equalised immediately, when Ruddy had a rasping shot just over the bar . Then it was the Crues turn to have a slip and defender Robinson got his feet mixed up and when he fell, Alan D burst through and slotted ball home to tie the scores at one apiece, that goal came in the 28 minute. Another former United player, Craig McClean got caught in a 50/50 tackle with United's Thommo and lay supposedly writhing in agony but when he saw the United was not going to get a card, he got up and ran away unscathed.

Elvis was finding his feet and he brought the best out of O'Neill with a rasping shot, the referee's verdict, a goal-kick. McClean got his reward when in another 50/50 tackle, he chickened out and dived to the ground seemingly pole-axed, though no contact was made and the ref booked United's Tony Kane and McClean got up and trotted away, job done. Surely the referee has in his power when he sees a player was obviously conning him, to flourish a yellow card for this despicable behaviour, which leaves a bad taste in the mouth. The United defence was struggling to deal with Crues Gareth McKeown's long throw-ins and were relieved to see an Owens header scrape the bar. United should have taken the lead when from a Cush corner Archie headed past with the goal at his mercy. The United midfield performed better as the match went on and Thommo was back to his best and the only disappointment was the normally reliable Cush, maybe his ankle injury has flared up again, I don't know what it is, but we need him firing on all cylinders in the next few games.

2nd half
Crues weren't going to use any subtlety in this half, it was route-one all the way and it's fair to say we had a few scares, but dealt capably for the most part. McKeown's long throws continued to put us under pressure and Declan Caddell of the Crues missed with one free header when there wasn't a defender within two yards of him, perhaps he was as surprised as I was in the amount of space he was afforded. We played nicely on the break, but the final pass often went astray or we got caught offside. The ref booked Gavin and Thommo and the Crues Caddell and how Crues Timmy Adamson picked up only a yellow for a crude two-footed tackle beggars belief. Then we had the Ruddy incident when the ref ignored the United man's obvious discomfort and he had to go off to replaced by Ally. That was in the 73 minute and Cush went off 3 minutes later with Lowry coming on. Then Gavin got injured, missed by both me and the officials and had to come off with Sparky replacing him, that was in the 80 minute.

Two minutes later we wrapped up the points, when from a short-corner, Ally found Alan D and his rasping shot from 25 yards was parried by O'Neill and Elvis scored with a diving header to rapturous applause. Immediately Crues manager Baxter took off the cheat McClean and brought on Coates to go three at the back. It's fair to say we were under a bit of pressure in the these last 13 minutes 8 in normal time and 5 in stoppage time, only there was supposedly only three. But we had chances to redress our goals for when Lowry left Coates for dead twice, the first time getting the best out of O'Neill and then later failing to find a telling pass to a United forward. But the main talking point among Sky Blue fans was the two that got away from Elvis. Firstly there was the left-foot volley which left O'Neill grasping at thin air and went just past the post and then the right-foot chip shot that hit the post and was cleared. The ref finally blew his whistle and the team was applauded off, a change of fortunes and a good victory!

Nelson (7), Kane (7), Black (7), Archie (7), Cookie (7), Cush (6)(Sub: Lowry 7,), Gavin (8)(Sub: Sparky 7,), Thommo (8), Ruddy (7)(Sub: Ally 7,), Alan D (8), Elvis (8)

Man of the match: Alan Davidson