More Hearbreak!

United suffered more heartbreak at Seaview last night when a match they had dominated, was cruelly snatched away from them by an incompetent referee. Picture the scene, the Crues are losing 3-2 and trying everything to break down the United defence and substitute Heatley  (whom United had tried to sign at the start of 2012 season), takes a blatant dive (he later admitted that there was no contact) and referee Burns gave a penalty. That for me was the turning point, the referee was biased in the extreme, but in truth I had expected nothing else, I'm too long watching Irish league football to expect a good strong referee and Burns didn't come into either category.

Manger Spike made two changes to his starting line-up of last Saturday, as expected Cookie was unfit and Dolan dropped down to the bench. Ally came for Dolan and Gavin Taggart got the nod in place of Munster and this meant re-jigging the United defence, with Tony K moving to rightback and Marky moving to central defence. The first half belonged to United as they scored 3 goals to the Crues one and what three goals from United's talisman, Cush. The first came about in 23 mins when Cush got on the end of a cross, from Sparky I think and gave no chance for O'Neill in the Crues goal with a crisp header to give United a deserved lead. Omar, says it was reminiscent of a header Cush scored in his first spell at United, from a Stephen Lowry cross against Lisburn Distillery, memories.

Cush was still taking the corners and one in particular was laughable as it sailed over everybody and landed at the opposite corner flag. But Sammy Patterson said he didn't care who took them as Cush was in dominant form and 4 mins later he met a Thommo pass and slammed the ball into the net, giving O'Neill no chance again to leave United leading  2-0. The old saying that you are at your most vulnerable when you have just scored bore true for United, when Dwayne (my man of the match on Saturday), misjudged a Caddell shot which struck the inside of the post before nestling in the net to make the score 2-1.  The Crues starting to up the pressure, but United held firm and with halftime approaching they went further ahead, when Cush beat O'Neill in a race for Jenks a pass, dinked the ball past the keeper and then slammed a left-foot into the unguarded net to give United a 3-1 cushion at halftime.

2nd half
The Crues made two subs at halftime, Heately and McCuthcheon and United were forced to change as well, Marky being replaced with Mike Ruddy. United were subjected to relentless pressure during the first 15 mins of this half but held firm, but struggled to get any possession. But in a breakaway, Sparky found Cutch and he rounded the keeper, only to see his shot strike post and rebound to safety, the same post that Caddell's shot had hit when scoring the Crues goal, ironic or what. Caddell was finally booked by referee Burns, but how he got away with numerous fouls in the first half beggars belief, but I expected nothing else. The Crues won a a doubtful free-kick on 65 mins and McCutcheon's free came off the crossbar and Caddell was on hand to score his second of the night and reduce the leeway to 3-2.

Four mins later Heatley took his 'dive' and despite our Captain remonstrating at Dwayne to dive to his right, he dived to his left, the wrong way and the ball ended up in other side of his goal to make the score 3-3. Sky Blue Sport in its preview of this game was calling for Dwayne to be retained, but acknowledging that Spike usually picks his second string keeper on these occasions, would in hindsight, Addis have been the better choice, for he is a penalty stopping keeper, sadly we'll never know. Mike Ruddy should have done better when he latched on to a pass but he shot hurriedly and not on target. Leeman had a chance form a corner, but his header struck a post and was cleared and Ally missed a sitter, blasting the ball wide with time ticking away. The ref blew his whistle for the ninety mins and we were subjected to 15 mins each way extra-time.

The match was over as far as United were concerned halfway through the first period of extra time, when JT was defending and he decided to back-pass to Dwayne. Dwayne under pressure, chose to try to find JT, instead of trying to clear the ball, but only succeeded in giving away an unnecessary corner. From this corner JT was the recipient of a Coates elbow, bur referee Burns saw nothing and Owens rose unmarked to break Sky Blue hearts with the clinching goal from a header to make the score 4-3 in Crues favour. Almost immediately Spike acted, but I was disappointed to see Sparky going off to be replaced by Alan D of all people, surely Liggie had to be the answer or Dolan, but no, Fergie elects for a dinky ball playing waster and we went out the game from this moment on.

Two mins later he took off our penalty king Ally off and brought on Dolan and I have to ask myself was he resigning himself to defeat. If we got a break and scored a goal to take the game to penalties, surely Ally needed to stay on and the only the only other sub to be made was Addis for Dwayne, if not, then Liggie, but no Fergie brought Dolan on and I don't remember a worthwhile contribution from him. The linesman at the City end where United were defending in the first-half of extra time missed a blatant offside and Dwayne made an excellent stop to keep United in the game, contrast that to normal time, when he flagged for two offsides when there wasn't anybody offside.

In the 2nd period of extra-time, United tried to summon strength to mount attacks but the tiredness and the unnatural surface was starting to take effect, there's no give in a plastic pitch, its like running on concrete. Still its the same for both teams and the Crues are more used to playing on it and they were trying to play out time. O'Neill in the Crues goal was warned at least two times to get a move on, but the ref took no action and didn't add extra time at the end of 120 mins, just the requisite one minute, adding insult to injury. O'Neill was beaten by Cush again and he was about to pull the trigger when he was hacked down and O'Neill recovered the ball and to the astonishment of United fans ,Burns waved play on. He finally blew his whistle and the dream had ended and it was probably a nightmare scenario in the end, but we gave it our best shot and there's no doubt about it, we are improving, but it'll take time, I hope its worth all the heartache and frustration when it happens, roll on the Irish cup!

Dwayne (6), Tony (7), Archie (7), JT (7), Marky (7)(Sub: Ruddy 7,), Sparky (7)(Sub: Alan D 5,), Taggart (7), Thommo (7), Cush (8), Jenks (7), Ally (7)(Sub:Mario (5)

Man of the match: with out a doubt, Cush!