After our visit to the league champions last week, where I thought we gave a good account of ourselves, I was astounded to hear the report of the game on Radio Ulster, our local station. I couldn’t believe my ‘ears’ when I heard the two Radio Ulster commentators say in their summing up, that Linfield always looked in control and were always going to win the game. Were they at the same game I was at I wondered? Or were they sampling the hospitality available at Windsor Park and forgot to keep an eye on the action? Do these individuals not realise they are providing a service for those people unable to attend games and who want to get a proper account of what takes place? I have no record of the statistics of the game, but I’d hazard a guess that we enjoyed the majority of the possession, especially in the first half. They also stated that United had obviously come to Windsor to defend, but I personally could see no evidence of this, as we played with our usual formation, 4,4,2, which though not as attacking on paper as the home team’s 4,3,3 allows, in my opinion, the team to play a brand of decent entertaining football. We also played with two genuine wingers, which I never knew was typical of defensive football, but then when David Jeffrey writes your scripts, anything goes. Linfield, on the other hand, did (and always have done), employ a sweeper at the back, so what formation was the more defensive minded I wondered. In the end of course this made no difference as United lost the game and the 3 points on offer as well. But they lost them to a hotly disputed penalty and a defensive clanger in injury time by United keeper Paul Murphy. Linfield have I believe 6 fulltime professionals on their books and if I was to judge them on last week’s performance, I’d have to say they’re giving poor value for money. Having said that I can’t deny that they appeared to be fitter than our players (but who doesn’t) and exerted pressure on us at two crucial stages, the last 10 minutes of each half. But and I emphasis the word but, their football left a lot to be desired, well maybe I should say their lack of football, as they tended to just ‘hoof’ the ball at every opportunity. United on the other hand played a bit too much football for my liking and they seem to have lost that will to win which is so vital an ingredient in today’s games. Maybe we gave them a little too much respect and maybe the reporters picked up on this as we tended not to go into all out attacking mode, but with officials like we had last Saturday it was probably wise to err on the side of caution as all Linfield players seem to have trouble staying on their feet. So lads, don’t just say what you think the ‘fat controller’ wants to hear, he can ‘paper over the cracks’ if he wants, you on the other hand should tell it as it is!
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