Heavy Price!

Last week I highlighted our weakness at throw-ins and corners and what an omen that turned out to be as we allowed the Glens to score two of the easiest goals they're ever likely to due to our benevolent marking. I hope what I'm about to say this week doesn't come back to haunt me, but it's something I feel needs to be said nonetheless. I refer of course to our discipline or more precisely our lack of it. Let me stress here that in no way am I condoning the performance of referee Alan Black on Tuesday night at Coleraine, but I do feel we did shoot ourselves in the foot somewhat. We can argue till we're blue in the face about whether the official was right to send Chris Ramsay off on Tuesday night, but at the end of the day it was a bad tackle.

Now when that happened we should've realised from then on we had to be 'whiter than white' as the referee was like a lion who had just made a kill and has the scent of blood in his nostrils, he could barely wait to make another one. Yes we had to compete against the scum with their extra man advantage, but we could ill afford to risk the referee's wrath. It's not as if this was a first for us this season as we have had more than our share of red cards already and in that respect you would think we would know better. Albert was booked for an innocuous foul but thereafter behaved himself and Mark Surgenor, who reacted to a tackle and got cautioned, behaved impeccably thereafter. Noel Anderson, whom I thought was superb, blotted his copy book by getting cautioned for dissent, so he was walking a tightrope for the rest of the game.

Like most United fans I was angered when Black cautioned him for an alleged dive, which was in stark contrast to his ignoring of a blatant dive in the penalty box by a scum player. Anderson protested his innocence and he did appear to have a mark on his thigh which looked like a stud injury, but the damage had been done when he was cautioned earlier. The Captain is the one that has the right to question decisions, not a player and it was obvious that Black was in no mood to listen to criticism of his performance anyway. This foolish behaviour is prevalent on the touchline as well and I believe our manager and his staff need to curb their own emotions. Maybe if they give a good example, the message will get through to the playing staff. We have so many suspensions looming that we may need to recall a few players in order to field a full side. Get this sorted Roy, sooner rather than later, only believe!

Full Support!

We, the Sky Blue Sport team have decided to give full backing to the 'fans' initiative of a complete boycott at the forthcoming away match at Stangmore Park, against Dungannon Swifts, as a protest for the alleged racism chant by our fans, which never happened. We would also agree that on the night of the game we should all attend the Showgrounds and donate some money towards the fine that the club have to pay because lots of people were prepared to tell lies against us. We would also like to send our best wishes to 'our' (fat), player, Ormo, who has unfortunately broken his leg and wish him a speedy recovery. Now here's Omar:

After our Irish cup scare against Ards (and it was a scare), it'll be nice to get back to league action on Saturday (weather permitting). Here we are poised in 8th place with two thirds of what I like to term the 'qualifying period' over. We are in the situation where we can either move up into the top six or slip into the relegation mire. The top six would be nice from a financial point of view as both Linfield and Glentoran would have to visit the Showgrounds and as they strive for league points the club should reap the benefits. The one big drawback in my opinion is that they'll have to share the United 'home' stand due to the ongoing work at the old stand.

Of course there is one hitch that will have to be overcome if we are to progress and that's the team's penchant for shooting themselves in the foot. I don't know how many games we have thrown away this season from what looked like a winning position, but it's a statistic we need to change if we are to mount a serious challenge for a top six finish. Manager Walker has said that he'd like to sign a striker as back-up while Andy Smith serves his 6 game suspension (4 to go yet), but I think we have the players who can mount a serious challenge as it is, if we can only sort out our basic play. I refer of course to our throw-in technique which seems to be, give it to Lee Colligan and/or Mike Smith and let them throw it as far as they can or throw to a player close by who can 'boot it' up-field. I have no football coaching experience but I think there's one or two more tactics that can be employed.

Then there's our defending from throw-ins, we never mark the thrower, which means when he gets the ball back he has a free run at our defence. This should never happen, when we are defending a throw-in we should be the favourites to win possession, not the attacking team. These are basic skills, they're not rocket science, in fact they're just common sense. Then we come to corners: we can't defend them and despite having four tall players in our team we can't exploit that at the other end. Surely these are things that can be worked out at training, if we can get these basic skills right we have enough talented players to unlock any defence in the league, but continue to get these wrong and I fear we'll slip down the table or at best hold our position. If we want a top six position it is I believe up for grabs and we can get off to a good start at the Oval on Saturday, after that it's all in the melting pot!

Foolish Talk!

After four postponed games in a row due to the wintry conditions, I suppose it's only understandable that that old debate about summer football should resurface. Let's face it there are already far too many summer distractions and I for one couldn't see myself attending games when I could be away playing golf or better still sporting myself at the seaside, on the rare occasions when we get some summer weather. What would we do during the close season? On a personal note the last three Saturdays have been a struggle as I have had no argument for my partner's quote 'If the football was on you'd go, snow or no snow' and so I reluctantly accompanied her on a shopping trip.

For any hot blooded man to have no alternative but to go shopping is a travesty of justice. Our forefathers didn't fight for the forty hour week, so as men could go shopping on their weekends off. Saturday afternoons are and always have been for attending football/sports games. If the 'little lady' wants to tag along and do her shopping during match-time, well and good, but and I stress the word 'but', if men have to traipse round shopping centres on Saturday afternoons from December to March they might as well be emasculated. Of course some of the people trotting out these bright ideas may already be emasculated, but I see no reason for the rest of us to be put in the same boat.

Then there's the hard bumpy pitches, football is at it's best when it's played on a surface with a bit of 'give' in it. I think that is what turns me off about summer football, the ball is bobbing about so much it's more like 'ping-pong' on grass. When I say on grass I'm using the term 'grass' in it's loosest term as by June or July it's hard to tell where the tarmac ends and the grass begins. Players will I think be more injury prone on hard pitches and watering isn't really much of an option given the high water rates prevalent at the moment.

The I.F.A. would be better employed delivering on those empty promises of the 'wealth' which every club would reap in this all new 12 team Premier league. This was to be the 'be all and end all' of football in this country. Here we are 18 months into the 'new deal' and half the clubs are admitting severe financial difficulties. Bangor have already gone to the wall and one of the oldest clubs in our league, Distillery, are facing a winding up order. If that's progress, why didn't they leave well enough alone. Enough of this foolish talk, let's just get on with things as they are, it's the only game in town!

Tainted Bias!

The I.F.A. have been out to get us for a long time. No, I am not being paranoid here, I merely quote from the facts. Now at last thanks to some misguided bigot, aided and abetted by 'punch drunk' officials, they appear to have got their way.

The first instance of bias in recent times (there was the well documented 'paying of Amateurs' vendetta of yesteryear), came when United fans quite rightly taunted former Omagh Town boss Roy McCreadie about the disappearance of the gate receipts from the 'Omagh Fund' match with Manchester United, by calling him a 'thieving Love child'. He of course tried to say we were using a sectarian word that sounds similar to thieving ( F-n--n), or at least it did to his biased ears. His protests were on that occasion found to be without merit (no apology to the maligned United fans).

Then there was the incident involving the 'fat' controller, David Jeffreys, when he wrongly accused United fans of using sectarian language to his players (funnily enough none of his players or anyone else for that matter heard the alleged comments). We were promised a full and frank apology if we were found to be innocent, which we subsequently were. Still no apology from the 'fat controller, but it's only to be expected I suppose.

Now in this latest incident we are accused of chanting racial abuse at Dungannon Swifts goalkeeper Alvin Rouse, allegedly calling him a 'Black' Love child. I myself was at that game and although I wasn't in that section of United fans accused of the racist chant, I honestly heard nothing. I did hear, as I hear every week from both sets of fans, the chant when the keeper takes a goal-kick, you 'fat' Love child. I have been assured by several individuals who were in this small section of fans that this was the only 'chant' which our fans sang on the day in relation to keeper Rouse. Is this yet another case of a misheard comment or is their as I suspect a secret vendetta being conducted against United.

For what reason it's being conducted I don't know, but I believe it is there. Maybe it's because we do everything above board, like paying our income tax on time, which then highlights the clubs who take everything to the wire or don't pay at all. Are Dungannon being used by some other club, who coincidentally play in the same colours and have 'bought' (I use this word in it's loosest term), quite a few players from them lately and who would like to deflect criticism from themselves. Their fans are the biggest purveyors of sectarian and racist comments in our league and the I.F.A. never take a 'blind' bit of notice. If we are to have no recourse but to pay this fine, then I think the 'kid gloves' will have to come off, in other words, we'll have to fight fire, with fire!