Two Halves!

The old adage about football being a game of two halves, was never better illustrated than at the Showgrounds yesterday. United deservedly lead DC 2-0 at halftime, although the visitors were well in the match, but United in the 2nd half, didn't (or weren't allowed to), compete. From my place in the home stand I could see Mike Ruddy being taken to the cleaners almost every time DC attacked and Mark McCullagh was floundering in central defence. There were the remedies on United's bench, back-up leftback Vaulsey and fit again central defender Johnny Taylor. What does our manager do, he takes off striker Dolan and midfielder Thommo and brings on striker Liggie and Alan D. Surely he could see our midfield was getting over-run by two former United players, Conor Downey and Paul McAreavy and we needed a defensive midfielder, which Alan D is not. Too late he brought on Gavin Taggart to replace his namesake Ally, leaving chief culprit Jenks on, but we were already on the rack at that stage and in replacing Ally we had little or no outlet.

Spike made three changes from team who performed so miserably at Glenavon the previous week, out went Chrissie to be replaced by the fit again Archie, given a torrid time by Miskimmon. Gavin was the scapegoat in midfield, making way for Sparky and Ally replaced Alan D. I don't know whether the new breed of referee's we have at the moment are just incompetent or biased but they're definitely hard to fathom. Take yesterday's incumbent, Andrew Davy, as an example, he booked Dolan of United for simulation (taking a dive), when he appeared to be tripped although he made it look good and let Cleary and Miskimmon of DC away with a dive apiece, one in each half and they were blatant. DC certainly came to have a go and McCullagh was easily beaten by O'Neil and Dwayne made a neat save with his feet. At the other end a Cush shot hit the post with Connolly beaten. Then we saw the two sides of referee Davy booking Dolan for alleged simulation and then completely ignoring Cleary at the other end for throwing himself to the ground in United's box. Conor Downey then had a run at United's midfield and he was allowed to penetrate to the edge of the box, before clipping a shot just over the bar.

United took the lead after 31 minutes, following good work between Thommo and Kane and when Kane's cross wasn't cleared it fell to the unmarked Cush and he brought the ball under control before slamming it into the net past the hapless Connolly. DC should have equalised ten minutes later, but O'Neil could only find Nelson when well placed. United went further ahead when Dolan was fouled at the edge of the box and the ball ran to Cush who slammed it into the net, but the ref had already blown for the foul, instead of playing the advantage. Justice was done however when Kane's clever free-kick found the back of DC's net to leave United leading by two goals to nil at halftime. During the halftime interval the United subs were have a kick about and Johnny Taylor fooled me by doing a lot of stretching exercises which lead me to believe he had got the nod to come on at halftime, but unfortunately I was wrong in my assumption and United literally paid the penalty for it the 2nd half.

2nd half
DC stepped up the pressure in the 2nd half and United were struggling to clear their lines and were under a tremendous onslaught from the visitors, but Spike like Nero, fiddled and did nothing. DC got a reward for their persistence when Miskimmon was allowed to run at the United defence and when Nelson could only parry his shot, Hughes was on hand to slot home the rebound. At the other end United continued to miss chances, firstly it was Ally bringing the best out of Connolly with a rasping shot, but surely a lob was the best option and later he found himself in the clear again and he picked out Alan D who miskicked and the ball fell to Liggie and he miskicked and all I could do was laugh. United were to pay dearly for this benevolence in front of goal, but in the meantime we were treated to a blatant dive from Miskimmon ignored by referee Davy again. Alan D had a couple of chances but he shot from distance instead of making sure. United were under the cosh as the 4th official held up his board for 3 mins of added time and referee Davy played his trump card.

From a throw-in Cleary knocked the ball over the by line and threw himself at United's Captain Jenks, who made little or no contact but referee Davy pointed to the spot and I was reminded of my childhood. In kick-abouts, we used to play 'three corners a penalty', referee Davy obviously has changed the rules somewhat, to three dives a penalty. Cleary picked himself up and dispatched the spot kick to leave the scores tied at 2-2 and promptly got himself sent-off for removing his shirt in celebration, which drew his 2nd yellow card. I have no problem with the result, just in how it was achieved. DC were worthy of their point but if referee Davy had continued with his policy of booking players for simulation, Clearly wouldn't been on the field for he already had a 'dive' in the first half, but in the end we had not come out for the 2nd half, but it's better than last week, but only just!

Nelson (6), Kane (7), Ruddy (5), McCullagh (5), Archie (6), Ally (7)(Sub: Gavin 6,), Thommo (6)(Sub: Alan D 5,)Jenks (6), Sparky (6), Cush (8), Dolan (6)(Sub: Liggie 5,)

Man of the match: Cush