Bogey Laid!

Its great to have to have that monkey off our back, but as usual we made heavy weather over it and it should have been easy. Readers or reader as the case may be, of my match reports, will know that I'm not a particular fan of United Captain Alan Jenkins, but what I will say in his favour, in my humble opinion, he is a leader. But he blotted his copy book in my eyes when he let Alan D take that penalty yesterday which would have moved us in to 2nd place in league table on goals scored. In the absence of Ally Teggart, off injured in the same incident that led to the penalty, it was up to the Captain to decide who took the kick and he made the wrong choice. Rusty Ray, who was sitting beside me, said and I quote, 'he'll either score or send the ball up Warden Street', Rusty got it wrong, as Alan Davidson's spot-kick hit the crossbar, he didn't even work the keeper, what a waste.

That's not to take away from this victory, which was fully deserved, but it should have been an easy victory, but we held out for three points and that's all that counts. As expected, Fergie made one change from his starting line-up of last Saturday, Dolan for the injured Cush, as predicted on Sky Blue Sport news. United broke the deadlock on 14 mins when Jenks rose unchallenged in the penalty box to Ally's corner from the left and headed it into the back of the Swifts net to put the Sky Blues 1-0. As so often happens when a team score, we lost our concentration and let Swift's Ryan Harper try his luck from with a 25 yard shot. Dwayne came to our rescue when he parried that effort and then denied Boyce when he looked likely to score, a crucial piece of goalkeeping. United almost increased their lead five mins later, when Taylor stole in unnoticed at the far post from a free-kick, but his header was easy peasy for Swifts keeper Buchanan who gathered comfortably.

Little was seen of the Swifts from then on, but they did manage to force a few corners but the United defence dealt capably with them. James 'Susan Bap' Costello caused concern among our defenders but he was well marshalled by a combination of Ally and Steely McBride. Neil Lowry was at his frustrating worst and earned the wrath of his manager for not following up, when the ball was there to be won. Rusty Ray observed that isn't the way to get the best out Neil, he needs to be cajoled and he was virtual passenger for the rest of the half. However he did manage one cross worthy of the name, but in fact it was too good and nobody got on the end of it. We managed to hold out to halftime but it was obvious a change would be needed for we were practically a man down as Lowry had lost the plot and kept getting caught in possession when he should have passed or kicked the ball into touch at least.

2nd half
As expected Neil Lowry was subbed at halftime with Neil Gawley taking his place and he was by no means a star, but he was better than Lowry. The Jury is still out on new signing Steely McBride, he looks good going forward but his defending looks suspect. Dolan came within inches of increasing United's score, but his effort from a difficult angle came off the crossbar with keeper Buchanan stranded. In a spell of Swifts pressure, Dwayne made a save and released the ball to Steely and then a catalogue errors ensued which culminated in the Swifts getting a wholly undeserved equaliser on the hour mark. Steely seems to be one of those players who needs to take a touch before parting the ball and he didn't look ready to receive the ball from Dwayne, instead of hoofing it up-field, he decided to lay it back to Dwayne and Dwayne made a hash of his clearance and the ball fell kindly to a Swifts player.

Dwayne's was scurrying and trying to get back to his goal but when the shot came in, it hit McCullagh's hand and the ref gave a free-kick about five yards outside United's box. Dwayne had his 'wall' organised, but when Boyce shot, the 'wall' crumbled and the stranded Dwayne who was covering the other side of the goal, couldn't stop the shot and the Swift's were level. Questions need to be asked of this horlicks, who decided the 'wall' should jump in unison, if they had stayed on their feet they would have stopped the ball, by jumping they left a path straight to our goal and Swifts gleefully took it. United were back in front a minute later and it was from of all things a 'short corner'. Now I hate 'short corners' almost as much as I hate short free-kicks, but in this case it was a success.

Ally took the corner short to Alan D and for once he didn't have a wild 'lash' at it and sent it on target, some defender got a boot to it, the ball ballooned up and Thommo managed to hook it back across goal and Shane 'Mario' Dolan hammered it home with his left-foot to give United a 2-1 lead. Two mins later Steely went on a run which saw him beat two defenders but he couldn't find a man and the chance was lost. Referee Hetherington had an up and down day, he booked Thommo for clumsy challenge, shoulder charge went wrong, but earlier he had let a Swifts player off with a talking to for hauling Mario down. He punished United's Mark McCullagh for coming over the top on a headed challenge and let the Swifts players do it with question moments later. But he kept his biggest gaffe to 15 mins before the end of the match.

Johnny Taylor's long pass found Ally and the United striker was 'taken out' by Swift's keeper Buchanan, a penalty and a sending-off, but it merely brought the yellow card. Somebody said the defender was there to cover it but my argument is, the keeper went out to stop Ally and he had should have been sent off. Ally had to have treatment from the physio, but he is our penalty taker and the Captain was the man to take the responsibility, but he 'chickened out' in my opinion and let Alan D take the spot-kick. As I said earlier Alan didn't even make the keeper work and he had come from 'hero to zero', for it was he that took the decisive penalty when we won the County Antrim Shield back in December. Ally was able to continue and six minutes later, Mario was replaced by Liggie to a tremendous reception from the Sky Blue faithful. The Swifts took off Costello (Susan Bap), at this time and I was was giving him a clap as well. Fergie made his final sub, taking off Ally and bringing on Ruddy and he promptly got booked for not retreating at a free-kick, a senseless act.

The Swifts tried to come forward but it just was not their day and Boyce tried to fool the referee by taking a 'dive' in the box, but the ref told him to get up. In the three mins of added time we didn't even have a scare and Captain Jenks showed his strength by cutting out long balls and when he missed, there were the two rocks, Johnny and Mark, ably backed up by Dwayne. Finally the ref blew his whistle and we could celebrate the end of a legend, we hadn't beaten the Swifts in our own ground since March 2007 and last week we beat the Crues and it was even longer since we had beaten them at Seaview. I'm maybe getting ahead of myself, but is this to be a record breaking year for the Sky Blues? Lets keep our feet on the ground, we have a match on Monday against Ballymoney United in the league cup and we need to be up for that, but I'll allow myself a smile, its good to be a Sky Blue!


Dwayne (8), Kane (7), Steely (6), Marky (8), Johnny (8), Thommo (8), Jenks (7), Alan D (6), Lowry (5)(Sub: Gawley 6,), Mario (8)(Sub: Liggie 6,), Ally (8)(Sub: Ruddy 5,)

Man of the match: Johnny Taylor