Easy Peasy!

There was a rumour doing the rounds at Solitude on Saturday that our first and reserve team had, had a practice match last week and the reserves had won. I don't know whether there's any truth in this rumour, but it may have been the catalyst that led to our trouncing of Portadown reserves yesterday and make no mistake, it was Portadown reserves. The only three players I recognised in the Ports starting line-up, were Lackey, Twigg and Patton, there could have been more, but announcer Kingo didn't see fit to enlighten us. Spike made a number of changes and as Mark McCullagh was serving a suspension, he reverted to his original back four, with Kane and Ruddy on the flanks and Archie and Cookie in the centre. There was a new centre-midfield pairing of Sparky and Gavin, Thommo on the right wing and Cush on the left, leaving Captain Jenks to support Liggie up front. United attacking the Fisherwick end, having won the toss, were quick out the blocks and the Ports rightback got his feet mixed up and presented the ball to Cush and he promptly lobbed Ports stand-in keeper McArdle and gave the Sky Blues the lead, with barely 4 mins on the clock.

Cookie almost committed suicide soon after, when he made a hash of a back-pass and Twigg looked set to score but Dwayne managed to hook the ball away from danger. But the visitors, looking visibly stunned that United had taken the lead so early, came back again and Lackey saw an overhead kick just clear the bar, with Dwayne looking beaten. United then almost increased their lead when Jenks beat the offside trap, but McArdle came to his side's rescue when gathering the ball. The United defence got caught flat-footed when Twigg got on the end of a long pass and struck an equaliser with 12 mins gone. This stung United and they went on the attack and when the ball was half cleared to the edge of the box, Cush struck a vicious left-foot shot, that seemed to swerve and beat McArdle all ends up. That goal came in the 14 minute and 7 minutes later Cush got his hat-trick, when Liggie and Thommo combined down the right and Thommo set up Cush for the easiest goal of his three. Twigg had claims for a penalty turned down when he collided with Ruddy in the United box and from a Cush free-kick Cookie could only head over, Referee, Andy Hunter, added one minute at the end of the first half and after more good work by Thommo, Sparky burst through to poke ball home to give United a 4-1 lead at halftime.

2nd half
Ports made two changes at the start of the 2nd half, with Redmond and McCaffrey coming on but United should have increased their lead when Sparky missed a free header from a Cush cross, That chance came in the 49th minute and two minutes later Liggie deservedly got on the score-sheet, firing through a ruck of players to make the score 5-1. Jenks and Liggie were starting to look like a combination and as if to emphasis this Jenks burst through and squared the ball for Liggie to score despite the attentions of two Ports defenders and keeper McArdle, to make the score a healthy 6-1 to United with an hour gone. The Ports stepped up the pace and after a good work sub Redman burst through but Dwayne saved at his feet. Mike Ruddy seemed to injure his groin and two mins later he came off and Johnny Taylor took his place to rapturous applause from the home fans, his first senior appearance for more than 5 months. Taylor took up his accustomed place at central defence with Archie switching to leftback, two mins later Sparky made way for Alan D and in the 70th mins Cush came off to rapturous applause and Shane Dolan took his place. Liggie had tried an aka Cush shot but it went high wide and not so handsome and Gavin also tried his luck, but his effort from 25 yards just shaved the crossbar.

The rest of the match was played out at half pace, the Ports players didn't want to pick up any injuries and our boys were content to try long shots, Alan D had a shot but it was a waste of time and effort and nowhere near the goal. The referee, Andy Hunter, used a bit of common-sense and only added 2 mins on. Ports had made two subs at halftime and therefore didn't eat up any time off the clock and the match was over when Liggie scored in the 60th minute. We applauded our heroes off, but we realise it was easy, Ports had at least one eye on next Saturday's cup match against the Glens. United next match is away to DC and 3 days later away to Lisburn Distillery, I surmise that they'll be sterner opposition than the free-wheeling Ports!


Dwayne (7), Kane (7), Ruddy (7)(Sub: Taylor 6,), Cookie (6), Archie (7), Thommo (7), Gavin (7), Sparky (7)(Sub: Alan D, 5), Cush (9)(Sub: Dolan 6,), Jenks (7), Liggie (8)


Man of the match: Cush