The Fall!

British summertime ended yesterday and with it United's bright start to the season, when they were thumped 4-1 by their Irish cup conquerors, Glenavon. Our manager Spike had been true to his word and made four changes in all to his starting line-up, as well as the unavailable JT and Thommo, he also dropped Tony and Captain Jenks. Captain Jenks at least made the bench, but no sign of Tony, was he playing for the reserves, I honestly don't know. The four players taking their place, were Cookie, Marky, Gavin and that enigma that is, Alan D.

I said to whoever would listen, if I had saw the team Fergie had selected before leaving home, I would've stayed at home. Alan D was a virtual passenger, he wanted too much time on the ball and when we had a chance of a quick break, he dithered and the chance was lost. United playing against the stiff breeze were well in the game and despite the height advantage of the Glenavon players, there was not many anxious moments in the Sky Blues defence. Ballymena had forced a corner after 5 mins, but nothing came of it.

Alan D was played was in but his feeble shot with his left-foot was easily dealt with by Blaney. Then with a quarter an hour gone all 'hell broke loose', when Cush stretched for a ball and caught Braniff and despite the ref blowing for the foul, Glenavon players reacted angrily to this and McCabe was seen to throw a punch in the meelee. When the dust settled, Cush and McCabe were booked and I thought referee Tim 'nice but dim' Marshall, had bottled it, but what's new? United then won a free-kick on the right and from Cushley's whipped cross no-one in a Sky Blue shirt could get on the end of it.

Gawley became the second United  player to be booked, when he seemed to win a 50/50 ball, but Tim flourished the yellow card, which I thought was especially harsh. From the resultant free-kick  the wind carried the ball near the top corner of the net and Dwayne pushed it over the bar for a corner. Then Ally went past his man on the left and drove over a superb cross, but Tippers just failed to get a touch, a chance gone begging. Two mins later United should have taken the lead, when Alan D found Gawley, who slipped by his marker and with only Blaney in the visitors goal to beat, he blasted the ball over the bar.

Bradley was booked for an elbow on Cookie, spotted by the lino, but a yellow for an elbow was adding insult to injury. United paid dearly for their earlier benevolence in from of goal, when Bradley was not closed down and from his superb cross, Kyle Neill stole in to put the visitors one up. It was in fact reminiscent of the chance United had missed, from Ally's cross at the other end and was clinically despatched leaving Nelson beaten all ends up. United had once again paid the penalty on two counts, (1) not taking their chances and (2), letting crosses in, the second was a schoolboy error in my book..

2nd half
United took the field for the 2nd half with no changes but they started brightly and Cush  almost levelled it straight away when he chased a through ball, but Blayney just beat him to it. Then from a Gawley cross, Cush could only head straight at Blaney. At the other end end, Steeky, under pressure managed to to steer the ball away at the expense of a corner. United came within inches of getting back on terms, when in a goalmouth scramble, Blayney seemed to drag the ball back, but the lino was adamant there was no goal.

This proved to be United's last chance, as straight away our defence went to sleep as Bradley waltzed through it from a pass by Braniff and beat Dwayne with a left-foot shot to make the score 2-0 for the visitors. Spike's response was to make a double substitution, taking off Steeky and Alan D and bringing on Captain Jenks and the 'out of form' Darboy. Ally had a shot from distance well saved with Blayney and Gavin became the third United player to be yellow-carded when he seemed to win the ball with another 50/50 tackle, that's obviously not allowed in Tim's book of rules.

Spike's last throw of the dice was to take off Gavin and bring on Mac (Brian McCaul), who looks definitely unfit, with a big belly and an ego to match. Darboy missed a good chance when he failed to control the ball and then disaster struck for United when Dwayne's attempted clearance, ricocheted off Marshall and ended up up in the air. When Dwayne attempted to grab the ball, he only succeeded in dropping it at Marshall's feet and he walked the ball into the net, to give a scoreline of 3-0 to the visitors.

Player-manager Gary Hamilton had replaced Bradley and with ten minutes to go he got booked and scored, you could almost say he made decisive impact. Before this Kyley had two chances to reduce the leeway, but was thwarted by the alert Blaney. United managed to grab a consolation goal when Captain Jenks nodded in a left-wing cross from Tippers with a minute to go, but it was too little too late and United had surrendered their unbeaten home record rather meekly when Glenavon won 4-1. I console myself knowing that the Sky Blues will set the record straight, when they put Chickenville to the sword on Tuesday night, i can hardly wait,lol!

Dwayne (6), Marky (6), Steeky (7) (Sub: Jenks 6,), Cookie (6), Kyley (6), Gawley (6), Alan D (5) (Sub: Darboy 5,), Gavin (7) (Sub: Mac 5,), Ally (6), Tippers (6), Cush (5)

Man of the match: Gavin