Doubly Ally!

Ally Teggart, so often the scapegoat when United manager Spike is looking to change things, he usually subs Ally, whether he is playing well or not. But not last night, where the diminutive player, became a two goal hero, one a thunderous shot from just outside the area, which left 'Stute keeper Ferry, clutching at thin air and the other a coolly despatched penalty, despite the histrionics of the Stute players in trying to unsettle him. The small band of Stute fans in the 600 plus crowd, claimed that the penalty was outside, but referee, Kennedy pointed to the spot and I have to take his word for it.

As expected, United had to make a change from their starting line-up of last Friday, when despite referee Heth, admitting he had made a mistake in sending of United Captain Jenks and Glenavon's McCabe, the IFA said they were unable to play, it could only happen in the Irish league, bungling clots that they (the IFA), are. Sparky came in for the United Captain and Kaner replaced Gawley, who was ill. United Captain for the night, was JT, but we missed Jenks for his organising skills and we looked especially vulnerable at set-pieces.

The weight of the Captain's armband seemed to weigh heavily on the normally steady JT and he got caught out as early as the first 2mins, when McFadden eluded him and later shot for goal and despite a parry from Dwayne, O'Flynn, was able to force the ball home at the near post, despite the attention of Steeky, to give Stute the lead at 1-0. Its fair to say that United were shell-shocked, for the second match running, they had conceded an early goal and they spurned a good chance to reply a minute later, when Tippers failed to connect from a Cush cross.

Then it was Sparky turn, but his header was 'bread and butter' for ex-Coleraine keeper Ferry, who saved easily. The normally reliable Cush, had seemingly deserted his 'shoot on sight' policy and he passed up a few chances, so unlike Cush and we need Cush to be himself. United were struggling to get things going and the Stute boys were tackling hard and ref Kennedy was letting them away with it. Despite one crunching tackle , from Walsh, the ref merely spoke to the culprit, who paid not a blind bit of notice to the referee's instructions. United won a free-kick from 25 yards, but the normally reliable Kaner's shot cannoned off the Stute wall.

Marky, on the overlap, sent over an inviting cross, but not one our forwards was prepared to go for it, yet another chance gone begging. Sammy Patterson said to me, he thought it was going to one of those nights, when despite our best efforts, the ball was not going to run for us. I agreed with him and a minute later I had to eat my words, when Ally drew us level with a great strike form just outside the penalty area. From a cross from the right, a Stute defender headed clear and the ball fell to Ally, who beat one man and then unleashed an unstoppable left-foot shot, which had Ferry clutched at thin air, to draw United level at 1-1.

Needless to say the United fans were delighted and Ally had become our ninth individual scorer in the process, with his first goal this term and we were 'cock a hoop', whatever that means. Stute were hanging on at this stage and ref Kennedy, finally had to show a yellow card to Fokker and with halftime approaching, Walsh, who should have been booked earlier, in my opinion. Stute were well in the game and Dwayne was taking no chances, having got no protection at Friday night's game at Lurgan, he was punching corners, instead of trying to catch them. The Stute boys are well coached to fall down at the merest touch and this they did throughout the game and the ref fell for it, but we got to the halftime whistle without incident.

2nd half
United took the field with the same players and Stute were soon into their stride trying to temp United players out and then hoping to catch on the break. But for the most part, United stuck to their plan, which was to let Stute play around at the back and then try to catch them on the back foot when we inevitably broke up play in our half. Kaner rashly committed a foul when there was little need and he became the third player to be booked. Then from a Tippers cross, Cush headed just wide and then Tippers timed his run to perfection but the Lino at our side put up his flag.

We were getting inroads to the visitors defence with good link-up play between Steeky and Ally and from of these Steeky sprinted into the box only to be manhandled to the ground by a defender. Surely I thought it was a sending-off offence, the use of the hands against a player  is prohibited in football and not condoned by any means. But the ref didn't dish out a red card, he merely pointed to the spot. I've looked at the incident on replay and I can't tell whether Steeky was inside the box or not, it was too close to be certain, but the referee has in his power to decide if, in his opinion, the tackle warrants a penalty and despite the Stute players surrounding him, he stuck to his guns.

Despite the histrionics of the Stute players, Ally, didn't get ruffled, he was like an executioner, he stuck to his job and despite a Stute player moving the ball off the penalty spot, Ally didn't complain, he merely went and placed the ball on the spot and when the ref gave the signal, he planted it in the net, with that sweet left-foot of his, to give United a 2-1 lead. Fergie decided to ring the changes and withdrew Kaner to be replaced with Darboy a minute after we had taken the lead, which necessitated Cush dropping to the right-wing.

United, despite loads of possession in the visitors half didn't add to their score, being content to let Stute have control of the game.  In 70 mins Steeky was harshly booked for kicking the ball away, when the referee blew for an offside, but that was a split second earlier, use a bit of common-sense please, refs.  With 17 mins remaining Fergie surprised me  by taking off Sparky, who had run his heart out all night and introducing Mack for his league debut, a bold move I thought, taking off a tackler for an attack minded player.

McFadden raced through beating the offside trap, but quick as a flash, Dwayne, was off his line, to block the strikers shot, a lucky let-of for United. Cush went down injured, clutching his groin and was replaced by Ruddy and it really was backs to wall stuff, with an occasional attack, for the remainder of the match and time seemed to drag. JT, got in a block, from Stute danger man O'Flynn as Stute continued to probe the United back line. It was in this stage of the match that Gavin came into to his own, breaking up play and setting his forwards on the attack with defence splitting passes, which they failed to take advantage of.

From one of these, Tippers raced down the wing and found Darboy about the penalty spot and despite having time, Darboy shot harmlessly wide with his left-foot instead of making sure. After what seemed to be an eternity, Davy King announced that we were to have the requisite 3 mins of added time and Dwayne came to our rescue yet again with a block from a Hume shot, who had come on for McFadden. When referee  Kennedy blew his final whistle, we applauded our heroes off and despite his priceless goals, I have decided to make Dwayne my man of match over Ally, for his two crucial saves in the 2nd half, but it was a close decision, but Dwayne just shaded it in my opinion!

Dwayne (8), Marky (7), Steeky (7), JT (7), Cookie (7), Kaner (7) (Sub: Darboy 6,) Sparky (7), (Sub; Mack 7), Gavin (8), Ally (8), Cush (6) (Sub: Ruddy 6), Tippers (6)

Man of the match: Dwayne Nelson