Mugger Hunter!

The Sky Blue Sport's team was hoping for a strong referee for this game at home to Linfield, but what we got was a 'weak and biased' official, who gave our keeper no protection and I hold him personally responsible for Dwayne's injury when Matthew Tipton fouled him for Linfield's first goal. The correct decision should been a free kick to United and Tipton should've been at least booked if not sent-off, we can't have players going in rough shod on keepers. In the 2nd half he gave a foul on the Linfield keeper Tuffey, which was laughable in the extreme, as he had flapped at a corner kick.

The linesman at the Fisherwick end of the ground was abysmal, there's no other word to describe him, he 'missed' three blatant offsides where Waterworth was the offender and gave Linfield a corner when the whole of A section in the home stand could see that the ball was over the byline. Is this incompetence or just plain cheating? He was up with the play on every occasion so I can't fault him for that, but to be wrong so many times, beggars belief. He had a better view of Linfield's first goal than the ref, but he thought it was okay for Tipton to go in with studs showing on our keeper, another mugger like Hunter.

Manager Spike made one change to his line-up from last Saturday, JT replaced Cookie and we got off to the worst possible start, when Dwayne, the hero last week, fumbled a shot from B.J. Burns from 30 yards and as he dropped he clearly had his hand on the ball and in control of it, I was amazed to see Tipton being allowed to challenge him and foul him and the ball ended up in the back of net and Dwayne was left writhing in pain. Dwayne had made a mistake, but he had recovered, but Hunter and the linesman must've considered the ball was loose, which it clearly wasn't and allowed the goal to stand, a clear miscarriage of justice, but what we have to come to expect when playing the IFA/Linfield, you can't beat the system.

Dwayne was able to continue after extensive on-field treatment, at one point the ref indicated that the stretcher should be called, but bravely Dwayne decided to carry on, but he must have been in terrible pain. I heard reports after the match, he had been diagnosed with a broken jaw, as yet unconfirmed and I lay the blame fairly and squarely at Tipton, Hunter and the linesman, who all colluded in this despicable attack, which will leave Dwayne on the injured list for the foreseeable future. When the game got under way the Linesman added insult to injury by not flagging Waterworth offside, but he dragged that effort wide of the posts. United spurned 3 chances to get back level, when first MM received a ball from Liggie and from his cross Thommo could only blast the ball over the bar, a horrendous miss.

Then it was Liggie's turn when he found space at the edge of the box and with time on his hands, he shot, but didn't trouble the keeper. Then Thommo managed to get a shot on target, Tuffey making a smart save, but Thommo failed to get in a cross from the rebound, pushing the ball harmlessly past the post. Then in 38 minutes the linesman 'missed' Waterworth clearly being offside and as Dwayne advanced, he lifted the ball over him and into the net and we had been mugged a second time. We were two goals down but in fact the score should have 0-0, but Hunter & Co, had seen to that. The ref added on 5 mins stoppage time for the injury to Dwayne and Waterworth should have done better when the Linesman 'missed' another blatant offside this time at least 5 yards, but his cross eluded everybody, what a let-off.

A minute later he chased a long pass which clearly went over the byline, but I was amazed to to see the Linesman signalled a corner. Deep into time added on, the Linesman woke up and flagged Waterworth offside, only to be overruled by the referee Hunter, who penalised United for an infringement in the build of play. The Linesman was obviously muffed by this turn of events and he never flagged for offside again during the remainder of the match. From the resultant free kick, Dwayne turned the ball onto the crossbar and away for a corner. Finally after what seemed an eternity, referee Hunter blew his whistle and we had survived. But could we regroup and get a foothold in the match, or would we have to make a substitution, with Sparky replacing Dwayne, lots of talking points at halftime.

2nd half
United came out with renewed vigour in the second half and they reduced the deficit two mins into the half when the ball fell nicely for Cush and he rifled a volley low into the net, beating Tuffey all ends up. Two mins later Cush repeated the dose and Tuffey did well to turn his effort over the bar. Then United produced the best move of the match, started with Tony Kane and carried on with Cush and Tony of all people missed with a diving header when it seemed easier to score. The Linfield defence was looking shaky at this time and they should've been punished when Liggie rose unchallenged for an Ally corner, but headed over, another dreadful miss. Then it was Ally's turn when he blasted over when Cush found him unmarked in the box, but he failed to work the keeper again.

We were to pay dearly for this benevolence in front of goal, when Linfied won a throw-in deep in our half. The United defence didn't deal too well with it and when Waterworth was left unmarked, his cross-cum-shot was headed home by the unmarked B.J.Burns. That goal came in the 60th minute and seven minutes later, Aaron Burns was allowed to waltz through our midfield and his speculative shot took a wicked deflection off a United player and found the net with Dwayne wrong-footed. We were dead and buried, but truth be told we only had ourselves to blame, for despite the cheating of the ref and Linesman, we had, had numerous clear-cut chances to be at least on level terms, but we spurned them all.

Fergie rung the changes after this, taking off Ally and Liggie and bringing on Robbo and Mario and despite creating pressure, Tuffey in the Linfield goal brought off a couple of good saves. We were leaving holes at the back and Linfield were guilty of some misses themselves and United were indebted to the woodwork on at least two occasions and the resolute Dwayne, who despite his fumble, was my man of the match. With 15 mins remaining Fergie brought on Archie to replace Steely McBride, but to our credit we continued to play football. JT got a head injury and had to come off with the match in injury time and as he was falling he touched the ball with his hand, unsurprisingly the ref penalised him for handball. Finally the whistle came and the feeling that we had been mugged would not go away, but in truth I never expected anything else, its hard to beat the IFA!

Dwayne (8), Kane (7), Steely (6)(Sub: Archie 6,), Marky (6), JT (7), Cush (8), Thommo (5), Jenks (5), Ally (6)(Sub: Robbo 6,), Liggie (6)(Sub: Mario 6,), MM (7)

Man of the match: Dwayne