United Backs!

The ‘mad. month of January is now over, the ‘January’ sales have finished and its debatable if this transfer window is ever necessary. Admittedly if a player suffers a long time injury, a manager may be able to strengthen his panel at this time. But from a personal point of view I have rarely found that anything positive comes from signing players during this time. Gavin Melaugh, signed by United at the beginning of January, may be the exception that makes me sit up and appreciate this opportunity. Thirty minutes into his full debut last week, he was thrust into a positional change with the injury to Gary Haveron. He performed admirably in this role and even though we eventually lost, he was blameless, as he was left isolated for the solitary goal that caused our downfall. Our manager, Tommy Wright, was fairly active during this window, signing another two players, defender Simon Kelly and midfielder Stephen Lowry. In fact if you listened to the media or watched Teletext, we were linked with almost every player who became available at this time. Our defence has been a bone of contention with our fans all season, as we have a bad habit of hitting the self-destruct button, time after time. But where would you start to change it and in fact you might have to change everybody in it? Goalkeeper Paul Murphy, despite our manager’s glowing praises, continues to cause anxiety among the United fans, as he has us as nervous as kittens, especially when he’s faced with a back pass. Both fullbacks seem unable to clear their lines and their attempts at volleyed interceptions are a comedy of errors. Then there’s team Captain Albert Watson, it’s easy to forget that Albert is just 21 years-old, he’s been around for so long. He has been improving every seasonup to now, but suddenly he’s looking fairly ordinary and it was alarming to watch Vinny Sweeney give him such a hard game last Saturday. Is the burden of being team captain wearing too heavily on Albert’s young shoulders I wonder? Gary Haveron, who unfortunately got injured on Saturday, tends to blow hot and cold. One day he looks unbeatable and then the next he looks uninterested. Maybe manager Wright will be able to experiment when Simon Kelly is available for selection. One things for certain, United can’t go on shipping goals at this alarming rate and have any success, it’s now time to plug the gaps, or slither into insignificance!