Shoddy Show!

In regards to what happened in the County Antrim Shield on Monday and Tuesday night, when Ballymena and Larne went crashing out to junior (lower division) teams, I thought I’d have my say. In my humble opinion, for what its worth, its all down to one thing, professionalism. United manager Tommy Wright says he had Dundela watched on at least three occasions. What these ‘scouting’ missions turned up we’ll hardly ever know. But one thing is plain as far as I can see, the benefit to Ballymena was to put it mildly minimal. In fact let’s not mince words here, the information was worth sweet F.A.. I suppose the logical conclusion to this information is that United also had last Saturday’s opponents Cliftonville, watched prior to that game. If they did the trip was an utter waste of club resources, or did the report tell them that former United player Davey McAlinden and his fellow centre-half O’Hara were useless in the air, otherwise why did we constantly through high balls at them all day, which they duly ‘lapped’ up. Scouting trips for the sake of scouting trips are pretty useless. Larne manager Jim Hagan, a former Showgrounds manager, was always a methodical man and I’m convinced he went into Tuesday night’s game with a game plan. Unfortunately Wakehurst hadn’t read the script and they took the game to Larne triumphing thanks to two first half goals. That was always Jim Hagan’s big failing as a manager, his plans were unable to adapt to changing conditions. When they fell behind Larne didn’t change their game plan and in the end they paid the ultimate price, with elimination from the competition. Ballymena as far as I could see had no plan at all, plus the players gave the impression they’d only just met about 5 minutes prior to kick-off. They also didn’t change their tactics when they fell behind in the first-half either and in the end they also paid the ultimate price. Another of United’s problems was that they had no real options on the subs bench and the changes they made were change for change sake. Tommy Wright and Jim Hagan were asked by their clubs to do a professional job, but I’m afraid they failed to deliver the goods. Unfortunately Larne and Ballymena directors and fans are the ones who have to live with the outcome. I realise no team has the ‘god given’ right to win, but at the end of the day all we ask is that you give it your best shot, I’m afraid we didn’t get that this week!