Darboy Delivers!

All you can ask of a striker is, if by chance he's in the right place at the right time, he does the business and Darboy certainly did the business against his former club at the scum's ground yesterday. The ramshackle ground not only has limited viewing facilities for spectators, but the pitch resembles a field where a farmer has done the groundwork for a ploughing match, definitely not for a  football game.

The surprising number of Sky Blue fans who turned up for this match, saw their team win for the third time this season against their derby rivals, but it was not by any means a classic. I don't know whether it was the pitch, but we couldn't string two passes together for 90% of the game, but we did take an early lead. Our manager, named an unchanged team, the only changes were in the subs bench with Ruddy and Shevlin, replacing the released Cutch and Brian Mack.

Barely two mins were on the clock when United mounted an attack down the left-wing and won a corner, which was taking by the Barber. His in-swinger, found Darboy, in acres of space and he planted his free header in the back of the net to send the Sky Blues fans into raptures. We all sat back and waited for the floodgates to open, but we were disappointed, we didn't have another shot on target until another hour had passed at least.

Unlike his counterpart Spike, the scum manager, had rang the changes from the team that succumbed to league leaders Crues, last week.  Andy Finlay, reportedly only 16 years-old in goals, was beaten by his Darboy's first effort, but thereafter kept a good goal, though in all fairness he didn't have a lot to do as United forwards were shot-shy. The home team shrugged off the disappointment of being an early goal down and starting to get inroads into the United defence.

They may have played all the football, on this glue pot of a pitch, but their shooting did leave a lot to be desired. The Lino, at the end where United's main crowd of fans were situated, started off well by holding up his flag for a close decision, but he only flattered to deceive. After 20 mins McGonigle, who was at least 15 yards offside collected a through pass and the Lino didn't even threaten to raise his flag.

He looked certain certain to score but Tall Tim, had other ideas and he managed to divert the ball away from goal and not let the scum forward get a cross in until our defence had recovered. There followed a bit of pressure, with our defence struggling to clear their lines, but luckily the scum weren't able to take advantage of this. Watt had already missed a chance after 8 mins when JT's weak header fell to him, but Tall saved, a golden chance gone.

Then Watt screwed another shot wide when well placed and Higgins missed the target with a free header from a corner. United did mange to fashion a chance with a neat bit of football, down the scum's left flank when Tony and the Barber, combined and the Barber found Thommo at the edge of the box, but he shot over the bar, not even working the keeper, what a waste.

There was an unsavoury incident when the scum played on with United player Cush lying injured which upset our manager. It all started with a brutal foul on Cush, not given, right in front of the Lino at the stand side and continued on into our box with the ref playing on. We struggled to clear our lines, when we eventually we did get it into touch our manager showed his frustration, by kicking the ball away and got a ticking off from KK (Keith Kennedy).

From the restart, KK added insult to injury, by awarding the scum a free for an alleged foul on a scum player, but he was only bluffing as it turned out. United almost paid the penalty for their earlier benevolence in front of goal, with two mins to go to the break, when Parkhill was adjudged offside, when converting a Lyons through ball. In my opinion he was offside, but it was a close decision and given the Lino's earlier clanger, I thought he had missed this one too, but justice was done in the end.

2nd half
I was hoping for a better 2nd period but alas I was disappointed, as the two teams struggled to play football on the sticky surface. The only two incidences of note came when first, JT foolishly picked up a booking for fisting the ball away, enabling us to waste to waste a few seconds. Secondly when Tall Tim, rushed from his goal to close down sub Harkin, when he broke through the United rearguard and looked odds on to score.

But Tall Tim had other ideas, he not only closed him down, he took the ball off him and passed to a United player. Tall was struggling with his kicking and I thought that Jimer or Tony could have taken the weight of his shoulders and took some their-selves, but it didn't happen and he continued to struggle. Fergie rung the changes in this half, bringing on his Captain, Jenks and top scorer Tippers, for the tiring Cush and the injured Sparky, who was getting no protection from KK.

The biggest cheer of the 2nd half was afforded to Darboy when he was replaced by youngster, Matty Shevlin. Matty almost repeated the dose, as he had done on his debut, by scoring from his first touch as he chased a through ball but he was beaten to it by Finlay, but only just. Shevlin was not to be outdone and when he latched on to a through ball from Tippers we all held our breath but this time, Finlay saved with his legs.

Tall Tim was booked by KK, for time-wasting I think, but I thought it was harsh, given the state of the pitch and his struggling with his dead ball kicks, but that's refereeing in our small country. The ref had added on the requisite 3 mins, but the scum were a spent force and United held out for a victory, not a deserved victory, but a victory nonetheless.  The look on the faces of the 3 stoogies Curly, Larry & Mo, in BT, as Darboy scored the only goal of game sums up derbies for me.

They are either filled with elation or depression, there's no in-between and luckily yesterday turned out to be elation for us, it was not a classic by any means, but it felt good nonetheless. Next up for United is an Easter Tuesday night game at home to the Point. It will be a tough encounter for they are fighting to avoid the play-off scenario, we look fairly safe, but three points would make sure and we are at home for a change, so its all systems go for 50 points, well I can dream, can't I?

Tall (8), Tony (7), Steeky (7). JT (6), Jimer (8), Barber (7), Sparky (7) (Sub: Jenks 6,), Thommo (6), Ally (6), Cush (6) (Sub: Tippers 6,), Darboy (8) (Sub: Matty 6,).

Man of the match: Tall Tim