New Convert!

'What a difference a day makes, 24 little hours', so say the words of the famous song and in 'football parlance' what a difference a few wins make, suddenly we've gone from the depths of despair and now 'the sky is your limit'. When United lost by a single goal at home to Institute on November 22 things looked pretty bleak. But now five games later we are on the brink of salvation (if Roy Walker would happen to read this, I don't mean that literally). We had only 8 points in the bag and things looked bleak, now we have 23 points and even though we're not out of the woods yet, there is light at the end of the tunnel. There were many doubters among the Sky Blue faithful, not too many made the trip to Mourneview Park for the Glenavon game, but Mourneview has been a ground where United have enjoyed a fair bit of success over the years and so it was on this occasion. That was the start and so it has continued over the last 5 games, maybe we were a wee bit lucky to take all three points at the Oval, but if we had taken all our chances in that game it would have been an emphatic victory. Probably our poorest display was in our last game against the Coleraine scum, but derbies are all about winning, entertainment comes a long way down the list. Once again in the Coleraine match our injury jinx struck once more, with Stuarty King breaking his ankle, while David Cushley was stretchered off for the third time in a game against Coleraine, surely an unenviable record. King, who had just taken over the Captaincy will be sidelined for two to three months, but Cushley in fact just had severe bruising, courtesy of scum player Tommy McCallion. The players who came on, Ryan Deans and Liam Mullan did an excellent job and are a fine example of the commitment the players are showing at this moment. What brought about this change in fortunes is our manager's catchphrase which the players have taken on board, 'only believe'. I was a doubter, one of many doubters, but now I believe also!

Jolly Season!

'Tis the season to be jolly', at least that's what they tell us, but I doubt if the United Physio would agree. Now I do realise I'm stretching things a wee bit here, I'm not just alluding (I hope you appreciate that word, I heard Raymond Kennedy say it), to the Christmas season, but to the 'football season' which began way back on August 9, or would have done if the referee's hadn't went on strike. First it was Craig McClean with a leg injury which took two months to clear up and then he stood on broken glass and is only getting back to fitness now, but will need another couple of reserve games before he can challenge for a first team place. Then it was Albert's turn with a nasty looking injury that turned out not to be as bad as first thought and he returned fairly quickly. But it was only a slight reprieve for the Sandy Row man as he suffered a nasty gash at the feet of Dungannon's Timmy Adamson on November 15 and has only resumed light training and is at least 4 weeks away from challenging for a place. The third player to be 'jinxed' was leading goalscorer Neal Teggart, he suffered a stomach injury and hasn't played since the Dungannon game either and subject to the result of a scan carried out yesterday could be out for the rest of the season. Everything, as they say always happens in threes, but there's more, big Gary Haveron, the man who epitomises United's fighting spirit, with his 'never say die' attitude and his leadership on the park, suffered a broken shin bone ten days ago in a game against Bangor. This was probably the 'cruellest' blow of all, as there were only a few minutes left in the game and the 'big man' was about to be substituted when fate struck the crucial blow, we will miss him dearly over the next couple of months. On the bright side (yes there is a bright side) manager Roy Walker continues to unleash young talent into the 'hurly burly' of the Irish league. Firstly it was Archie Stewart, coming into the back four to cement a place, after starring for the reserve team last season, then it was Lee Colligan, another star in our reserve team last season and now it is young Ryan Deans, who scored the crucial first goal at the Oval last Saturday. He also managed to get two goals out of Mike Ward, whom I thought was going to be added to the long list of failures who have failed to fulfil their promise over the years. Our keeper Alan Blayney, after a poor start has proved he is top drawer, while Gavin McDonnell has in the last few games been outstanding. Aiden Watson slotted into the rightback slot as if he had played there all his days, while Tommy Wray has come on in leaps and bounds in the last few games. Stuarty King or should I say the much maligned Stuarty King has got a new lease of life and rightfully took the Captain's armband last week. Upfront the revitalised Kevin Kelbie, despite his health problems (diabetic), continues to lead the Sky Blue line and has pledged himself to the United cause only recently. While Gavin Melaugh is starting to rediscover his form, so maybe after all it is the 'season to be jolly' all I can say is, bring on the Coleraine scum! Merry Christmas from all at Sky Blue Sport and 'come on Sky Blues' let's shag them all!

Own Man!

Norn Iron have dropped back down the F.I.F.A. world rankings, they are now at No. 52 and methinks they still have (like the credit crunch),a ways to go yet. Who I wonder is responsible for this sad state of affairs? Sad to say it is mainly down to one man and it greatly pains me to say it, International team manager Nigel Worthington. Nigel is not only a Ballymena boy, but he is also a Sky Blues hero, having been a member of the team that began that wonderful run that culminated in three Irish cup wins in the eighties. He was a 'cultured' leftback, a long throw specialist and a man to call on in a crisis. Got a free kick late in a game, let Nigel take it, got a penalty, let Nigel take it again. I could go on and on about how Nigel broke into cross-channel football and the career he carved out for himself, both as a player and a manager, but suffice to say he enjoyed a good lifestyle. When he was appointed Norn Iron manager to replace the 'charismatic' Laurie Sanchez, I was glad to see a local boy get the 'plum' job, but sceptical of how successful he could be. After scrambling a couple of good results he showed his hand in our last game of the European Nations qualifiers. Norn Iron needed to beat Spain to even have an outside chance of making the finals, no doubt Laurie would have went in with 'all guns blazing', but not our boy he went for a containing game and the inevitable happened, we lost and failed to qualify. That was the beginning of the rot that has seeped back into our International game and will in my opinion continue to ferment while Nigel is in charge. The only thing we have going for us is surprise and the fact that 11 Ulstermen turn into giants when they strap on the green jersey, take that away and very soon we will be scraping the bottom of the barrel once more. Even our 'talisman' David (God) Healey's attitude has been questioned by our Nige and told he needs regular first team football. I think in David's case the opposite is the fact, when he plays club football he's under pressure to perform, but when he plays for Norn Iron the pressure's off and he plays for fun. I know Nigel wants to be his own man, but for the sake of our wee team he has to forget his defensive tactics, let's instead go for the jugular. As Jonesy in dad's army is fond of saying they don't like it 'up em', so let's give 'em' what they don't like. We may end up not qualifying again, but at least we'll have had some fun doing it and after all, entertainment is the name of the game!

Ever Spinning!

Not a week passes that local football doesn't get hit with some adverse headline or in the case of this week, three adverse headlines. Firstly those paragons of virtue the team and manager that can do 'no wrong', Linfield and the 'fat' controller, fielded an ineligible player during a league game on Tuesday night. The player in question should've been serving a one game suspension, but instead he played for Linfield at Mourneview Park, against Glenavon, a game which the reigning league champions lost 1-0. We now await the punishment from the I.F.A., seemingly Linfield cannot be deducted points as they lost the game anyway, so it seems a fine is likely. If the punishment handed out to the 'Bigoted Jeffrey' last season for making false claims of sectarian abuse from United fans is anything to go by, Linfield can expect a £50 fine from the powder puff I.F.A.. Then last night during that excuse for a programme, Season Ticket, that renowned reporter, Stephen (Turnip-head)Watson was interviewing I.F.A. president Raymond Kennedy and sacked chief executive Howard Wells. On the one side was the big country yokel, Kennedy, who despite answering about 10 questions said nothing and the smooth talking (marlies in the mouth), Wells, equally saying nothing, but both hinted that pretty soon the s--t would hit the fan and then there would be hell to pay. Then there was a third bombshell dropped tonight from our esteemed government better known as the Stormont 'fleecers and murderers club' (if anyone can't understand this just send a S.A.E. to Sir Reg Empey and he will explain), that suggests none of our clubs would pass new stringent safety laws and are in that context operating illegally. What next I hear you ask? The answer is I don't know, but sure as 'pussy is a cat' (some say pussy is something completely different but I won't go there), there will be more controversy, in fact it's the one thing we can depend on, we definitely can't depend on the weather and we can't depend on the I.F.A. to do anything sensible, sure the shock would probably kill us if they did!

Organised Confusion!

Usually about this time of year the glut of unplayed fixtures tend to come to the fore with matches called off because of waterlogged pitches and to a lesser extent wintry conditions, e.g. frost and fog. This season though it's slightly different as most teams lost the first two games of the season, one because of the referee's strike and the next because of heavy rain. A few teams have attempted to get these games played, while others have 'dragged their heels' and we now have the situation where teams are still 2 games behind and with extra games over the festive period and the Irish cup coming up it's hard to see how these games can be fitted in. The disastrous (well in my opinion disastrous), decision to play the C.I.S. cup games over two legs has not helped and in a complete fluke we have the unfortunate situation where four teams must play each other three times inside a week. No-one could have envisaged that Glentoran and Coleraine would be drawn against each other just days before meeting in a league encounter and likewise for Glenavon and Distillery. But surely it doesn't take a mastermind to realise that when you have a 12 team league the likelihood of something similar happening is about 50/50. The authorities have no control over the weather I realise, but surely they have to get their collective heads together and make sure these sort of incidents don't happen again. If the spectators attending these games are an indication of the viewing public's interest, then it's high time we went back to a one-leg competition. Not only would it be possibly more enjoyable to watch, it would also leave some free dates for teams to make up their back-log of games!