Barefaced Robbery!

The Sky Blues came back from the dead at Warden Street yesterday as they broke Lisburn Distillery's hearts with an incredible fightback from 3-0 down to draw 3-3. United manager Spike amazed me with his team selection playing four defenders and six midfielders, not a striker in sight and only one on the bench. In an interview on the radio after the match first team coach Lee Docherty, alluded to this strange line-up, saying that we had struggled to exert any pressure on opposition defenders of late. What does he expect, playing the lightweight Jimmy Mac upfront against Coleraine was folly in the extreme and we left three strikers kicking their heels in the stand yesterday, surely they would have been better employed in the starting line-up. When we lined up to kick-off I remarked who's going to play up front and nobody, but nobody, had any clue. As it was we played Jenks upfront, but he was like a 'fish out of water', although Lee said he thought he done well, I must've been viewing a different match.

As expected Tony Kane came back in to rightback in a back four of Archie, Cookie and Black and was the only one who emerged with any credit of this motley crew. The rest of the team with Sparky in place of our leading goalscorer Jamie and Ally replacing Jimmy Mac, was the same as that which succumbed to the Coleraine scum on Boxing Day. We started badly and throughout the first half we were second best, we couldn't pass, we couldn't tackle and it was only a matter of time when the Whites would take the lead. Every-time we tried to find Jenks upfront he was in the wrong position, or easily robbed by the Whites defenders. Referee Davey Malcolm was at his most incompetent when early on in the match Sparky was elbowed but Davey ignored it, but booked Tony Kane for drawing his attention to it. At this stage some of the Whites tackles were questionable and 4 mins later Smith was booked for a bad foul. Ligget and Halliday were having a field day with our two powder-puff central defenders and I was getting nervous.

Ross Black, who was the pick of our defenders on Boxing Day had a nightmare, giving the ball away every time it came to him. Somehow we had clung on to nearly the end of the half, but when Archie failed to clear the ball and injured himself in the process, Ligget was set free and he found the impressive Jordan Hughes and he buried the ball in the net to give the visitors a deserved lead in the 37 mins. Archie had to go off from what seems to be a hamstring injury, with Rodgers taking his place and two mins later Cookie was injured after a clash with Halliday, that should've resulted in a least a booking, but Malcolm ignored United's protests. Cookie was able to continue although he didn't look fully fit and this I think had a bearing on what was to transpire minutes later. The 4th official indicated that there would be one minute of additional time this half and when United were attacking they lost possession and Cookie got caught out and tried to play Ligget offside but Rodgers played him on and he cut in and drilled a low shot under Dwayne's body to give his team a deserved 2-0 lead at halftime.

2nd half
At the interval Cookie came out to try and run his injury off, but to no avail and I could see him shaking his head and he was duly replaced by young Peter Duffin. I admit I was disappointed in this substitution, for I wanted to see either King Billy or Jimmy Mac come on, to see if they could get us a foothold in the match. Disaster struck in 49th minute when Sparky, who had went in to defence when Duffin came on, was fouled by Ligget but ignored by the ref, and Jordan Hughes scored his second goal and the visitors third with a powerful left-foot shot. I thought we are dead and buried now but we got a lifeline from an unlikely source 3 mins later. Jenks was found on the right wing and played the ball back to Duffin and told him to pass to Gavin who was about 25 yards from goal. Duffin done what he was told and Gavin struck a half volley into the corner of the net to give his side some hope. We were rampant now and Gavin was our hero and when Duffin got the ball again and Cush was in the clear we started get excited, but his pass went astray much to the dismay of Cush.

Ally then missed a golden opportunity when he was well placed but disaster struck in the 66 mins when Gavin our hero became the villain, when he was adjudged to have kicked out at Ryan McCann and was promptly red carded by Malcolm. I thought this was harsh, surely a booking would have done and I thought that McCann had kicked out at Gavin first, but Malcolm hadn't seen it or chose to ignore it. Ligget missed a glorious chance to bury us when he burst through our defence eluded Dwayne who had come tearing from his goal and missed the the target, a dreadful miss. Two minutes later the visitors also had a man sent off, when Aaron Traynor attempted to head-butt of all people Tony Kane, he must be nuts or something. Seven minutes later we reduced the leeway when Cush had a header saved by Brennan in the visitors goal, a shot from the rebound cleared off the line and when he was found again in the six-yard box he gleefully slammed the ball into the net. Five minutes later Thommo missed a real sitter when after a challenge by Cush on Brennan, he missed an open goal, I thought then that we had blown our chance.

Cush was being manhandled by Smith, who had already been booked and twice appealed to the linesman but to avail and just for good measure Malcolm booked him. Despite blatant time-wasting by the Whites, Malcolm only added 3 mins at the end of the 90. When United got a corner in the 93rd mins it was all or nothing and Dwayne ignored the advice from the bench and came up for it. Ally, who had taken over the corner kicking duties from Cush, delivered a ball straight onto Dwayne's head and he was only denied by a last gasp save from Brennan at the expense of another corner. Ally put the ball in virtually the same place again but this time Jenks shot and Sparky got a touch to tie the match at 3-3. I and all Sky Blue fans went wild at this turn of events, it was like winning the Shield all over again, a wonderful feeling, but oh we had left it late and we had committed barefaced robbery and the Whites players were left spread-eagled on the ground. This was a match we needed to win and we had chances to win it, but we only got a point and in truth we didn't deserve a point, but we have got to start somewhere and this could be the springboard, I and all the crew at Sky Blue Sport fervently hope so! A happy new year to all our readers,COSB!


Dwayne (8), Kane (7), Archie (5)(Sub: Rodgers 6,), Cookie (5)(Sub: Duffin 7,), Black (4), Thommo (5), Gavin (6), Sparky (7), Jenks (6), Ally (6), Cush (7)


Man of match: Dwayne Nelson