Donkey's Cart!

There is saying that after the lord mayor's show, comes the donkey's cart sweeping up the debris left behind. After the County Antrim Shield winning performances which was near faultless, the Sky Blues were away off form yesterday when they succumbed to D C at Suffolk road. True they had what seemed to be a perfectly good goal disallowed and for the 2nd time in a week, the referee (Hetherington) was the focal point for discussion after the match. He not only denied United a perfectly good goal when Cush out-jumped Connolly in the D C goal and headed into the net, but early on he called a halt to play when United were mounting an attack with 3 on 1 ascendency, when Shane Dolan lay down in the United box clutching his head. As it turned out there was nothing wrong with him and the referee had been duped, no head injury, no bleeding cut, just an attempt, a successful attempt, to hold up play. There was no score at this juncture and if United could have a fashioned a score at this stage it might have made for a different result, goals not only win matches, they give teams a boost.

As expected Spike started the same team as he selected for duty on Tuesday night and he made only one change to his squad, Ally in for the unlucky Dwayne. United were sluggish from the start and they struggled on the bumpy Suffolk road pitch. Thommo and Alan D were fringe players, dominated by former Sky Blue Conor Downey. Some of the D C tackling was robust to say the least and referee Hetherington aided and abetted them but not flourishing a yellow card sooner. Sparky was the pick of our midfielders, but he couldn't do it on his own and King Billy had a disappointing match as did Cush and Elvis. In a spell of DC pressure, Cush came to his sides rescue when he hoofed the ball out of defence despite an attempted late tackle by Dolan. Dolan lay writhing on the ground and I for one thought, 'slap up you' you were trying to foul Cush and you got what you deserved. Meanwhile the ball was being worked up right flank and Thommo and Cush were streaming up in support and we had a 3 on 1 supremacy and the referee chose this moment to call play to a halt, we couldn't believe it, we were in the last quarter of the field of play and he blew up, no doubt he'll add insult to injury and phone Spike up this week and tell he got it wrong, lol.

But lets not take anything away from D C, they were the far better team and you could see that it would only be a matter of time before they scored. The United players seemed unable to hold the ball, whereas the D C forwards and Miskimmon in particular were mastering the conditions very well. When Miskimmon beat Cookie on the edge of our box, he fed Dolan and from 12 yards he gave Addis no chance and the home team the lead. There followed a spell of D C pressure and Addis had to react sharply to palm an effort away from sub McAllister who had come on just after their goal. Throughout the remainder of the half we were treated to a 'master class' in feigning injury by the home team and chief culprit was Miskimmon and he fooled the ref time and time again, holding up play and eating away precious minutes. United almost conjured up an equaliser they hardly deserved, when a Kane free-kick struck the outside of the post with Connolly beaten. That sums up our luck I thought, a foot to the right and we be level, undeserved I know, but when do you ever get what you deserve in football, very seldom IMO.

2nd half
Spike made one change at the start of the 2nd half, taking off Thommo and bringing on Captain Jenks, but truth be told he could've taken off any of his midfield two (Sparky being the exception), or any of his forwards, nobody but nobody was having a good game. In fact as the game wore on it was the home team that looked more likely to score. Elvis, who I admit I have a soft spot for, was having a stinker and after one pass that he made a complete mess of, he was substituted with Jimmy Mac coming on. I was surprised by this move, I personally thought that Jamie should have come on as he is able to hold the ball up better, IMO. But Spike knows best and who am I to argue with him, he has done it all and he has just won us our first trophy for 23 years, the man is a legend. We couldn't get anything going in attack, we'd string three passes together and then hump the ball with a hit and hope pass which was bread and butter to the home defence. D C on the other hand continued on their merry way and I thought they scored when a shot thundered off the crossbar with Addis beaten but the ref said it didn't cross the line, a lucky let-off.

We made our final substitution, Ally for Alan D and it made no appreciable difference and in fact D C nearly increased their lead when McAllister had a shot finger-tipped over by Addis. In an United attack started by Kane Sparky was blatantly pushed by Downey but the ref gave a corner and the linesman who had an uninterrupted view of the incident agreed with him. Worse was to follow when Cush beat Connolly to a high ball, launched by Ross Black and headed the ball into the net. At first I thought the ref had pointed to the centre, but then I noticed he was giving a foul on the keeper and I suspect the Linesman had made the decision for him. No matter who made the decision it still stands and our bench was up in arms and rightly so, for the 2nd time in a week we were cheated by a referee making the wrong decision, who knows in the long run these two points that we could have had, might make the difference on a top six place or down among the also-rans. The ref made no allowance for the time-wasting tactics of the home team and blew up and United had lost their 3rd league game in a row and came down to earth with a bump!

Addis (7), Kane (6), Cookie (5), Archie (6), Black (6), King Billy (5), Thommo (5)(Sub: Jenks 6,), Alan D (5)(Sub: Ally 5,), Sparky (6), Cush (6), Elvis (5)(Sub: Jimmy Mac 5,)

Man of the match: Stuarty Addis