Leave Alone!

I'm having to write my wee piece a day early this week, because the I.F.A. in their wisdom (now that's a joke, as the I.F.A. and wisdom are strange bedfellows to say the least), decreed that the C.I.S. cup final should be played on a Saturday, therefore making teams not involved in the final ( only 14 teams, talk about the 'tail' wagging the dog), play their games scheduled for this Saturday at another date, in most cases this Friday night. This of course is the 2nd Saturday disrupted for the 'final' as the previous one was washed out and by a strange quirk of fate the weather forecast for this weekend is pretty dismal and there's a fair chance the game will fall foul of the weather again. I would laugh, but the I.F.A. are liable to disrupt yet another Saturday for us long suffering fans and I for one have had enough. Hopefully if the game is postponed again they will this time opt for a midweek kick-off, but I won't hold my breath. That other 'old chestnut' came to the fore last night, an all-Ireland football team. I personally hope this never happens and hopefully it won't in my lifetime, as I doubt if many players from our wee province would make it into an all-Ireland team. We would probably see the same thing happening as does in the rugby team, where two or three Ulster players are selected to keep the fans quiet and even if they are the best players in their position, there's no guarantee they'll get to start. Mark Lawrenson even said as much when he reckoned that only three of the current Northern Ireland team would be capable of claiming a place in an all Ireland side. Mark is a self proclaimed expert, yes admittedly he was a top class defender in the 'glory days' at Liverpool, but since retiring from the game he has become a professional pundit, but not a manager. If he knows so much about International football, why is he not putting his name in the frame for the vacant Republic of Ireland job. I'll tell you why, he'd much rather sit in a nice warm studio and enthuse about the great 'Wayne Rooney' or whimper on about Michael Owens latest injury crisis and by a strange twist of fate these two players play for England, who were swept aside by a team who, according to Mark, could only manage 3 players for an all-Ireland side. While us folk here in good old Norn Iron have got breath in our bodies, we'll not be dictated too by the likes of Mark Lawrenson, so take a bit of sound advice Mark and just leave us a alone!

Old Times!

I was almost moved to tears on Tuesday night, not by the game or the result I hasten to add, but by the article in the programme about the '58 Irish cup triumph. United beat the mighty Linfield in that year and Linfield had the legendary Jackie Milburn in their ranks, but it made no difference, we were just too good for them. I was two months short of becoming a teenager and I went to the final along with my Dad and his friend Davy and it was easily the 'best' day of my life. I had been reminded of the 'good old days' earlier on Tuesday evening when a woman in front of me at the turnstile proudly announced that she was a senior (over sixty) and was entitled to concessionary admission. She proudly stated she had been attending games for over forty years, I have been attending games for about 57 years I thought, but then again, who cares. I then began to think of the changes that have occurred at the Showgrounds in my time of following the Sky Blues. In my early years it was a seat in the old stand along with my maternal grandfather and my Dad, but from '58 onwards it was a place at the 'clock' on the sleepers exposed to the elements. I can well remember being on the terracing one cold winter's day in the sixties when we were playing Bangor and it was blowing a blizzard and bloody cold I can tell you. The announcer at the ground took pity on us at halftime and even invited us to come and sit in the stand, an unheard of courtesy in those days. I and my companion, Gerry M, who sadly passed away last year, decided we couldn't get any wetter or colder, so we stubbornly stood our ground and we were back the next game for more punishment. I can't remember exactly when we got the cover at the clock but it was a great innovation and made the game even more enjoyable. The ground of course is now practically unrecognisable, gone are the Irish banks behind the goal and we have a new stand on the 'Clock' terracing and are soon to have the new 'old' stand extended by 1200 seats. One of the things though that hasn't moved with the times are the turnstiles at the Showgrounds, surely their modernisation is long overdue. But one innovation we have at present which I hope will remain is the new turnstile operators recruited by the treasurer in recent weeks. Two beautiful ladies have been doing the job recently and they have added their own charm, greeting us punters with a pleasant smile and a bit of banter. Rumours are rife of an incident that happened some weeks ago concerning one of these women, but I am too much of a gentleman to comment on it, let's just keep it between ourselves T, I think it's for the best!

Merry Go-Round!

'Here I go once again, with my suitcase in my hand and I'm making my way down river road', that's how the old song goes and in many ways it typifies the to'ing and fro'ing of footballers during the January transfer window. I sometimes wonder if managers sign players during this 'window' just for the sake of it. Admittedly there are those teams who are in dire need of a few new faces and sometimes new players can encourage existing players to raise their game, but there are other teams and I would include Ballymena in this group, who have little need of strengthening their respective panels. United manager Tommy Wright has released Paul Brown who has gone back to Limavady United and Aaron Callaghan, who has joined his home club, Derry City, while signing striker Michael Ward from Glentoran. Tommy would probably argue that he has been looking for a striker to partner Kevin, 'give em hell boy' Kelbie, since last season, when he realised Paul Brown was not going to deliver the goods and Fitzy wasn't up to scratch either. But surely that was the time to go get somebody, instead of having to shell out money at this time of the year and money we can ill afford. Glentoran have also purchased a couple of players, one of whom Aidy McCabe left Dungannon Swifts under somewhat of a cloud. What that reason was we may never know, but I can't help thinking it must have been for disciplinary reasons. Glentoran of course are no strangers to taking on players with behavioral problems and getting the best out of them, striker Gary Hamilton being a good example. But sometimes those complex personalities can have a disquieting effect on the other players at the club and once the team 'ethic' is damaged, it generally takes a long time to recover, if it ever does. Perhaps of course Michael Ward will come into our team and start knocking in the goals, while we shoot up the league table and our manager will be hailed as the best thing since 'sliced bread'. I of course being a long suffering 'dyed in the wool' Sky Blue supporter am a bit more pessimistic, so go on Tommy, prove me wrong, then I can laugh all the way to the cup final!

Play Fair!

In this day and age it might seem a bit old fashioned to be expecting people to be upfront and honest in their dealings. We live in an age when it seems the people held in the highest regard are the biggest villains imaginable. Just this last week we had the admission of a cricketer, who said 'I had a lucky escape, I nicked a ball to the wicketkeeper, but the umpire didn't give me out'. Well to coin and old phrase, 'that's just not cricket', most cricketers don't wait for the umpires decision, they walk to the pavilion and this is what used to set them apart. But not any more it seems and I am not surprised that a member of the opposing team called him a 'monkey'. Actually a more appropriate term would have been 'cheating love child', but instead he called him a £500 note, the significance of this is lost on me, but then the game is played by grammar schoolboys and they mostly play rugby, enough said. The cricketer was an Australian native (I'm surprised he didn't go walkabout anyway) and being Australian probably gives him something of an excuse (the wild Colonial boy, Ned Kelly, etc). Then at home here we have just had the 'ludicrous' and unfathomable decision by the football writers to award the December 'player of the month award' to Cliftonville's George McMullan for scoring four goals during the month. Cliftonville are playing well it must be said, but they did only play 5 games during the month, 4 wins and a draw, while the wee Sky Blues played 6 games, 5 wins and a draw and one Kevin Kelbie scored 6 goals during that run of games. But then again Kevin doesn't play for a Belfast team and that seems to me to be part of the criteria. Then surprise! surprise! Tommy Wright has just been named 'manager of the month', at first I thought well that proves that they aren't totally biased after all, but then I remembered, Tommy Wright is an ex-Linfield player and maybe that gave him an edge when it came to the voting, or am I being paranoid, Sky Blue fans will no doubt make up their own minds!

Oval Muddle!

As I parked my car at the Oval grounds on Tuesday past (New Years Day), I was surprised to see United fans coming back up the 'hen run' as the visiting fans entrance to the ground is commonly called. At first I thought the match had been called off, but I then learned that the turnstiles at that end of the ground were not open and we would have to enter the ground by the same entrance as the home fans. This was no great hardship, but why oh why, were we not informed a couple of days before the game or better still at our previous home game. As we entered the ground we made our way behind the main stand and round the City-end terracing to the so called 'visitors' stand. The first thing we encountered was the tracks of some vehicle, which ran through the enclosure gates and round the back of the goals and to say that it was muddy, was an understatement. After making our way round, trying our best to avoid the clabber, we then found when we entered the 'stand' (I use this expression in it's loosest term), that the dugouts had been moved to our side of the ground, blocking out a large proportion of the touchline in the process. As if that wasn't bad enough, we then found that 'chicken wire' had been suspended from the roof to the top of the railings giving at best a poor view of the proceedings. The view in fact was pretty poor in the first half, but when the light's came on in the second, it was even worse and can best be described as 'blurred vision', in no way satisfactory. Added to that was the £10 admission charge, nothing short of a 'rip off'. On the plus side the match was exhilarating and it was obvious that the home team gave their all, as evidenced by their collapsing on the turf at the final whistle, United always give their all. If you can guarantee that sort of action and commitment, I'll gladly play £10 for a seat in the stand at all games, but , Please! Please! Please!, for the love of the game, let us have a decent view of it. As I have said many times in the past, never mind the rules about ground safety look after the supporters interests instead, for without them you will have nothing!