Only Success!

At last United manager Tommy Wright has uttered the ‘dreaded’ words, he has a long term plan for the team. Just this week there he is ‘spouting’ in the local press, about how young the team is and how three or four years down the line we’ll be the most feared team in the country. Well Tommy I have news for you, we’ve heard it all before, your predecessor Kenny Shiels had a five year plan and after five years in Kenny’s charge, we were a mediocre team, a team who couldn’t even beat one senior team in order to get to the Irish cup final. Then you took over and after a fairly good first half of the season last year, fourth in the league table and in the final of the County Antrim Shield, I’m afraid it was all downhill. This season so far has been to say the least a blooming disaster, first we failed to qualify for the C.I.S. cup, but no surprise there, we rarely do. Then we were knocked out in the first round of the Shield and are now going backwards in the league. We had a tough start to the league admittedly, playing the four top sides, Linfield, Glentoran, Cliftonville and Portadown, in our first 6 games. From these four games we gleaned one miserly point, in a match where we showed considerable poise and determination. Alas of course one swallow doesn’t make a summer, we had only flattered to deceive and it was back to ‘dross’ for most of the remaining games. We did have a chance to redeem our selves as our last 5 games in the first half of the league were against what on paper should be inferior teams. At the time of my writing this column we have gleaned only 7 miserable points from these games (we have still one to play away to Newry on Saturday), we allowed the worst team in the league to score 3 goals past us and then to cap it all threw in the towel against the Coleraine Scum on Boxing Day. Tommy, as far as I’m personally concerned, you can take your four year plan and put it where the ‘sun don’t shine’. What I, a ‘longsuffering dyed in the wool’ Sky Blue fan want is at worst, qualification for next years Inter Toto cup, the Setanta cup is realistically beyond us for another year, so somehow you’ve got to get us into fifth place in the league which should get us into the Inter Toto cup. Do that and you may live to see your big plans come to fruition, anything else, will be looked upon as failure and I think you know where that will take you!

Watching Brief!

I was just thinking to myself, what am I going to do this Saturday, as there’s no Premier league games until Boxing Day. I have informed my other half that shopping is not on the agenda, so there’ll have to be an alternative. Then I remembered that the traditional Christmas morning final, the Steel & Sons cup, had been switched to this Saturday instead. I then realised I could ‘kill’ two birds with one stone as United’s Irish cup opponents, Harland & Wolf Welders F.C., were one of the finalists. That means I not only get to see a match, I also get a look at the team standing between us and the next round of the ‘cup’. I asked a United contact after last Saturday’s game, if Tommy still had United’s forthcoming opponents watched, adding that after watching the 3-3 draw at Loughgall, it didn’t look like it. The spokesman assured me that not only did we have them watched, we actually had a plan for dealing with them. To say that this plan came badly unstuck, was to put it mildly, as my contact assured me that the players didn’t have the game down for a 3-3 draw. If they had played to get a 3-3 draw it would’ve explained how they missed three sitters in each half and how they allowed the home team to score 3 goals when they only had five chances. It would also have explained why our manager took off the only player who looked likely to unlock the home defence. Yes the Mark Picking substitution was a bit hard to fathom, but maybe he just wanted to give Austen Friel a run out before the visit of the Coleraine scum. Whatever his reasoning it meant we made a proper ‘horlicks’ of the game, wrong tactics, poor finishing and schoolboy defending. Of course I was also informed at the time we lost to Dundela in the County Antrim Shield, we’d had them watched also. Maybe having the opponents watched has no material benefit, as the teams we have beaten this season, with the exception of Portadown and Crusaders, have been pretty mediocre to say the least. But it is the season of goodwill, so I just hope Tommy and the boys can get it right for Boxing Day and also for the Irish cup. I would just like also to wish all United supporters a happy Christmas and remember the old saying, ‘East or West, ‘Sport is the best’!

Home Championship!

Norn Iron manager Lawrie Sanchez has called for the re-introduction of the British Home Championship, but in his wisdom has hinted at omitting England and substituting the Republic of Ireland (hereafter referred to as the Pub), instead. Such a scheme in my humble opinion would only work if we could acquire major Sponsorship (major car dealers please take note). I doubt that spectators alone would attend in high enough numbers to make the proposition financially viable. Would Scotland and Wales readily jump at the chance or would they prefer to let things stay as they are at present? Even the ‘Pub’ might not be as keen, whereas if England were involved I think they’d jump at the chance. Human nature being what it is, we all want to beat the mighty England, maybe we could arrange it that the winner plays England in a one-off game at the end of the season? If as I said earlier the other Celtic teams are not up for it, maybe we should spread the net a bit wider and offer an invite to teams like Finland and Norway, a minor European League involving the Pub and ourselves. We could stage the competition on Irish soil in one season and on Scandinavian soil the next. I think this would have a knock on effect for our wee team at least and I’m sure we could fit in the occasional friendly as well. The only interference might come in World Cup years when if one or more of the teams involved qualified for the big show (world cup finals), the competition would need to be cancelled. Maybe the international committee could put their heads together with their ‘British’ and ‘Irish’ counterparts and set the ball rolling on this venture. With the news that Setanta have promised at least four more years of the Setanta cup, maybe now is as good a time as any to get this competition off the ground. Just imagine Norn Iron playing the Pub at the new International stadium at the Maze in a Championship decider, sure you could sell the tickets ten times over. In fact can I put my name down for two tickets now, just in case it ever comes off!

Big Head!

Just noticed that the County Antrim Shield semi-finals scheduled for next week have had to be cancelled. The County Antrim F.A. have said that the cancellation has nothing to do with security concerns, just operational difficulties. If this is the case, then why are they talking about a change of venue for the Linfield/Distillery clash at the Oval? Their latest statement cites ticketing problems, but surely there’s ample time to sort out any such difficulties. It’s just another shambolic performance by the football authorities here and they’ve had the audacity this week to suggest nominating the ‘colour blind’ Jimmy Boyce, for the vice-presidency of F.I.F.A. This is of course the I.F.A. and not the County Antrim F.A., but they are so closely linked its hard to tell one from the other. This also is the same Jimmy Boyce who saw fit to enter the referee’s dressing room at halftime during the Cliftonville/Ballymena match last season and berate the official as to his first half performance. There was no great surprise when the official awarded Jimmy’s team, Cliftonville, a penalty in the second half, when otherwise it’s doubtful they would ever have scored. His colour blindness has been widely acknowledged by his insistence that his team’s supporters only wear club emblems when attending games. I’m at a loss to see what part of Clintonville’s emblem incorporates the Irish Tricolour, as displayed on the South stand during last Saturday’s C.I.S. cup final. Jimmy’s one claim to fame is that he has for the most part kept his jet black hair (Grecian 200 has a lot to answer for), but then again this could work against him as he’s too young looking for such a senior post. Jimmy, I understand, will be one of four nominees from the four home countries and I have to admit grudgingly that he’s probably the best man for the job. The English F.A. or F.A. as they are known are even bigger bunglers than our own association and could not be trusted with children’s piggy banks (unless of course there was a ‘bung’ involved). The Scottish F.A. talk constantly about taking sectarianism out of sport, while bending over backwards to keep Celtic and Rangers happy. The Welsh F.A. are just a baby of the English F.A. and toe the English line and in the end make no decisions. So, sad as it is to contemplate, Jimmy Boyce is probably the best of a ‘bad lot’, but he’d probably be even more pompous than he is now and that’s what’s worrying me!

Fair Play!

I read in the paper recently that local referees had agreed to be a little more lenient with players who break the rules. I personally remarked on the performance of referee Adrian McCourt in our game away to Limavady, who seemed reluctant to caution anybody, even though there were many transgressions by both sets of players, he kept his yellow and red cards in his pocket. But this leniency doesn’t seem to have had much effect, as 13 players attached to Premier league clubs, began one and two match bans from Monday past. Ballymena had two players falling into this category, top scorer Kevin Kelbie and fringe player Gordon Simms. Kelbie will be badly missed by United tonight at Larne, as he is averaging a goal every two games, even though he has failed to find the target in the last five. Though I, as a United fan am disappointed that Kelbie isn’t playing, I realise at the same time that justice is not only being done, but its being seen to be done. Players have to be responsible for their actions and should be punished by the teams as well as by the authorities. Too many times we have witnessed players, like Mickey Collins and Packy McAllister, deliberately trying to injure other players, if these incidents were not condoned by their respective clubs, perhaps we’d witness less of them. That in my opinion is a much better way to go about reducing the number of suspensions. If we can stamp out the violent play, then referees won’t have to caution as many players. Whereas if we are more lenient, the ‘dirty players’ will just take advantage of our leniency and push it to the limit. I do realise that football is a contact sport and sometimes tackles are mistimed which leads to an inevitable caution, but that is unavoidable. I can’t stand ‘nicey nicey’ football anyway, as it’s a ‘mans game’ and one must expect some rough and tumble. But the line must be drawn, when its rough for the sake of being rough, its time to get the yellow cards out and get back to playing the game!