Rough Justice!

The result of yesterday's match hinged on whether United keeper, Stuart Addis, sent off by the referee for impeding Martin Murray of Portadown, deserved no more than a yellow card, if that in fact. A similar incident happened in United's match against Linfield at Windsor Park in mid-September and the linesman in that case was adamant that no contact was made by our keeper, but the referee still gave a penalty and our Captain was sent off for protesting. I don't know whether the linesman in this incident disagreed or agreed with the decision, but Addis was adamant that he didn't pull Murray down and I'm inclined to agree with him.

There's been a couple of incidents this season when the opposing keepers pulled a United player down and no action was taken (rather than a yellow card), against them. Just last Saturday, Alvin Rouse, the Ducks keeper, pulled down United's Captain and then saved the resultant spot-kick. But this time Stuarty was dismissed and Sparky had to go into goal and his first task was to pick the ball out the back of the net when 'diver' Murray scored. That proved to be the only goal of the game and from then on, there was only one team in the match, the Sky Blues, except  for 5 mins after this sending-off the much vaunted Ports strikers didn't trouble United.

United had made one change from their line-up of last Saturday, Gavin Taggart for the suspended Thommo. That meant no place for Ally, who is our penalty king and corner kick taker and boy did we miss him yesterday. Marky, at rightback was struggling with the pace of Ports wide man Barton, but when he got to grips with him, he nullified that threat and had a stormer of game to boot. United forced 6 corners in the first 15 mins, all taking by Cush and they were diabolical, but from a typical bad one we came within inches of scoring. This corner looked to be easy for the Ports defence, but they messed it up and Sparky's overhead kick came off the the upright with the Ports defence at sixes and sevens.

We were pressing and we had already got caught on the break and our offside trap was not working and Ports exploited this with a swift move that saw Murray home in on goal with only Addis to beat. Addis came out to try to drive Murray away from goal, Murray made sure he tripped on the keeper and United had covering players so it was no guarantee that he would have scored, but the ref flourished the red card. Murray sent Sparky the wrong way from the resultant penalty and we were under the cosh for about five mins after that and Sparky made a good save and then punched a corner over the bar and this gave his defenders confidence by his assured display. This handicap (10 men), meant Captain Jenks had to return to midfield, leaving Mario to battle alone up front.

Cush tried to get up to help  him but he was needed in midfield most of the time, but he did get one snap shot off but it went wide. The few United  supporters in the meagre crowd were encouraged by the teams fighting display and with a degree of composure they could've had something to cheer their hearts if the United forwards had taken their time to unlock the hesitant Ports defence. As it was they promised to deceive, created openings only to lose the ball at the last minute, by a stray pass or taking the wrong option. I must say a word here about Cookie Munster, rumoured to be playing with pain-killing injections the result of a broken toe, he was magnificent and a tower of strength in our beleaguered defence.

2n half
United continued to battle on and its fair to say they were the best team and but couldn't unlock the Ports defence sufficiently to get a clear-cut chance. But they stuck to their task manfully and JT came into his own, mopping up and distributing the ball to his forwards, a real class act. From a through ball Mario looked to be fouled by a Ports defender but struggled gamely on but Miskelly in the Ports goal made a magnificent stop to the strikers shot. The United fans were calling for fresh legs (subs), to be introduced and with 15 mins to go Fergie finally acted, taking off Gavin and bringing on Neil Lowry. Lowry has a pace to burn and I thought he should have been on earlier, but the manager thought different.

Neil started to run at the Ports defence and forced a corner and Cush took it perfect this time, but Miskelly was equal to Captain Jenks header. With 9 mins left, Mario went off to be replaced by MM and the Ports announcer got confused by saying that he was a Ports sub and then correcting himself. United continued to probe and Captain Jenks felt the full force of a Cush shot when he got in the way of it. Then it was Neil Lowry's turn to blast over when the ball came out to him with the goal at his mercy and Captain Jenks could only turn another good Cush corner into the side-netting. In a last throw of the dice Cookie Munster went off to be replaced by Liggie and this looked a positive move, but it necessitated Captain Jenks moving to central defence and we lost his thrust in midfield.

Maybe Cookie was starting to feel the pinch of his injury and his age, suffice to say he'll not see 35 again unless its on the door of a house, but if on the other hand it was tactical, then it failed miserably for we went out the game at this point. Ports were content to spoil the game and play it out to a finish and I suppose you could say they won 'ugly'. It was a fascinating match, but not an enjoyable one, the ref, whoever he was (I never seen him before), spoiled it by sending Addis off, but we had our chances and didn't take them, a bit more composure and we could at least got a share of the spoils. But we're not there yet as a team, but we are getting better and by a strange coincidence we play Glenavon next week, two matches in a row in the 'lost' city of Craigavon. We need a strong ref for that one and a fair one, if there is such a thing!

Addis (7), Marky  (8), Archie (7), Cookie (8) (Sub: Liggie 6,), JT (8), Gavin (7), (Sub: Lowry 6,), Tony K (7), Sparky (8), Cush (7), Jenks (7), Mario (8) (Sub: MM 6,)

Man of the match: Sparky