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!