Bad Duck!

For Shane Dolan's debut United manager Spike changed his formation and played a 4,4,2 instead the usual 4,3,3. as expected Chris Rodgers came in for the injured Archie, but Cookie was passed fit and Peter Duffin got a start wide on the right and Sparky was unlucky to be on the bench. When the ducks came to Ballymena earlier in the season they showed their ugly side and they did it again last night. But United, with the Cush upfront alongside Dolan, made sure they didn't get anything with their bad attitude. On Boxing Day against the Coleraine scum, United had missed a sitter early on and had paid the price. Last night they took the lead in 69 seconds, as Chrissy Rodgers got his head to an Ally near-post corner to beat the gangling Ducks keeper Alvin Rouse all ends up. What a start we thought, it was going to easy, but with referee Tim Marshall, making outlandish decisions this was never going to be easy. The ducks to their credit, when they weren't falling about and trying to bluff the referee, played some nice football, but the United defence and midfield stuck to their task and kept the chances to a minimum.

We already had two ducks players diving in the box and referee Tim took no action, but when United Captain Jenks won a powerful header right in front of the dugouts, a ducks player went down screaming and the referee was conned, booking the United Captain, a huge miscarriage of justice. The ducks player was unsurprisingly able to continue, his job done, the ref had fell for it. Two minutes before this the ducks had a chance, but Dwayne made a great save from Kee when he found himself in space. United picked themselves up after this and Duffin created an opening for Cush but he shot over the bar. Cush came within an inches of scoring United's second when he eluded his maker, went round Rouse and pushed the ball goalwards only to see a defender kick it of the line. But United weren't to be denied for long and when Ally found Dolan after a quick throw-in, the United débutante scored via a post with a right-foot shot, to leave the halftime score 2-0 in United's favour.

2nd half
We usually take time to get going after halftime and the ducks had made two substitutions but it was United who started the brighter. Duffin found Dolan with a great cross and he shot only to see Rouse save at the expense of a corner. When we took corner on the right, taken by Ally, the ball was half cleared and if fell to the alert Cush and he hammered it into the net to give United a 3-0 lead. I felt like pinching myself, was this really happening, could we be leading by three goals to nil against the form team of the Dankse Premiership, Sammy Patterson informed it was true. Spike took off Duffin and brought on King Billy, setting out his stall, not what we have we hold, we're going to go for more. Billy playing on the right wing down the home stand side was linking up well with the United midfield. From one cross Billy found Dolan, but his header was easily saved by Rouse. The Ducks created a few chances and Dwayne was relieved to see one effort clear the bar. Cush burst through the hesitant Ducks defence and when I expected him to shoot with his left, he tried to get on his right and it ran through to Rouse.

Rouse was a bit slow about picking the ball up and Cush harried him, but didn't touch him but Rouse claimed he was fouled but the referee and linesman didn't see anything, for there was nothing to see. Rouse threw the ball into touch and received treatment for his ghost injury but Cush wasn't fooled and he threw the ball not into the box but along the touchline and harassed Rouse again, the crowd loved it. With 20 minutes left, Ally who was instrumental in our 3 goals, went off to be replaced by Sparky and 7 minutes later the débutante Dolan went off to be replaced by Jimmy Mac. Thommo had a great run from midfield and was only denied by Rouse's last ditch save for a sensational goal. King Billy treated the fans to his sublime skills, when he made the ducks rightback dizzy, with his twists and turns. Tony Kane, whose distribution left a lot to be desired last night, tried with a long shot when he noticed Rouse off his line, but he missed the target with the keeper beaten. The ref blew his whistle and we had won our first league match since early November and we had beaten a team of cloggers then, roll on next Saturday!

Dwayne (8), Kane (7), Cookie (7), Chrissy (8), Black (7), Duffin (6)(Sub: King Billy 8,), Thommo (7), Jenks (6), Ally (8)(Sub: Sparky 7,), Dolan (8)(Sub: Jimmy Mac 7,), Cush (8)

Man of the match: Cush