Rough Justice!

That old 'chestnut' regarding the 'offside' rule has cropped up in United's last two games. You know what I mean, there's a player blatantly offside, but the referee and/or linesperson decides he is not interfering with play and the flag either stays down or the referee waves play on. To my mind (and being a defender in my long distant footballing days I assure has nothing to do with it), the only time a player's not interfering with play is when he's outside the confines of the pitch. If a player's on the pitch and the ball's played forward he's offside, one could argue the case that he wouldn't be interfering if the ball fell to an opposing player, but actually why should the defensive team be punished when they have committed no offence. I'll set out the scenario for you, an opposing player, let's say for arguments sake Glenn Ferguson of Linfield is in an offside position but in the officials opinion not interfering with play, the ball runs through close to our penalty box, young Sean O'Neill sprints out of his box and in attempt to clear the danger miskicks the ball, it falls to Aiden O'Kane who coolly shoots into the empty net, where is the justice in that I ask you? Or to outline another scenario, one that actually happened on Tuesday night at the Oval. A Glentoran player, could've been Hamilton or Scullion or any of those 'love children', it doesn't matter who, was blatantly offside during an attack by the home team. The United defence naturally hesitated, the offending player made no attempt to get involved in the play, the linesman kept his flag down and Glens striker Halliday ran through unchallenged to score, again where was the justice? At Seaview on the Saturday a Crusaders player was offside and the linesman at the Shore Road end of the ground who had a diabolical game and signalled for a goal that 'never' crossed the line, kept his flag down, one can only assume because in his opinion the player wasn't interfering with play. The upshot of this was that United conceded a corner, where was the advantage for us here, no fecking place as usual. A legendary Norn Iron footballer and International team manager, the 'great', late, Danny Blanchflower once said that if a players not interfering with play, what's he doing on the pitch. As a long suffering Ballymena United fan (an unbroken stint of 45 years now if anyone's interested) I have never saw one of these incidents work in our favour. Probably the worst incident this season happened in the 'first' actual game in this new league. In the second half of a truly forgettable match, Cliftonville striker Chris Scannell was caught offside, he ran back towards his own half, play was allowed to continue, the United defence had a chance to clear the ball but didn't manage it, the ball was crossed into the United box where Scannell gratefully swept it into the net, that I can assure was bloody rough justice!

Happy Days!

I for one am bloody delighted that the 'transfer window' has finally closed. Now perhaps managers can get down to what they are paid for, 'whipping' teams into shape and starting to win the odd game. It'll be at least 4 months before the opportunity to 'buy' their way out of trouble presents itself once more. Conor Downey, object of a failed bid by Sky Blues boss Roy Walker during the pre-season, went back to Cliftonville for an 'undisclosed fee' (two Mars bars and packet of soggy crisps would be about all the reds could muster I'll warrant). Andy Waterworth, remember him, the greatest thing since 'sliced bread' according to whites manager Paul Kirk, has returned from the S.P.L. (Scottish Premier league, although he never actually played in it) and has joined Glentoran for a 'reputed' £30,000 (the Glens have re-mortgaged the Oval for the 35th time), as Paul so eloquently put it, 'what goes around comes around' and that is definitely true in Waterworth's case. Linfield, despite being told by Ballymena United that he wasn't for sale, came in with a last minute bid for United striker Kevin Kelbie, believed to be in the region of £35,000 (the rumour that this was in Northern Bank notes hasn't so far been verified). United of course told the 'Bigot' to go take a dive into 12 inches of water (this is just to prove I can be topical) and he accused them of calling him by sectarian names, but then what he hears or believes he hears, are rarely the same thing. What am I saying, let's called a 'spade a spade', the 'bigot' just hears what he wants to hear and tells unsubstantiated lies, knowing he can get away with it. Rumours that Dungannon Swifts have signed a 'one ball wonder' so Rory Hamill doesn't feel lonely, have not been confirmed. What will we do between now and January, thank god we have the first round of the C.I.S. cup to look forward to. United will break new ground this year, they'll get to play in the knock-out stages of the C.I.S., who says this is not a progressive league, the only way as they say, is up!