Only Leave!

Roy Walker is promising a better outcome for United next season and he's saying it'll be better because he has a 'clean slate', his words, not mine. I have to say I'm not optimistic, as I think we took 'backward steps' this season and I do realise as Bruce Balmer said, I could look foolish as by a strange quirk of fate United could still finish in 8th position in the league. But I will assume (dangerous I know), that we will be as disinterested as usual and end up losing to Glenavon, as the Tommy Wright bandwagon rolls on, our dear friends from Coleraine will probably see to that, while Institute preparing for their play-off game will allow Newry a free passage, which means we finish in 11th place.

Everyone talks about our great feat in reaching the Irish cup semi-final, I think we were bloody lucky to get by the first round. Sean O'Neill made three crucial saves in our first round match, which kept us in or we would have deservedly lost to Ards in the first round. We eventually saw them off after extra-time, not something to get the heart racing, except for the wrong reasons, but not an unmitigated disaster, we've had more than our share of them in the past. Then along came Ballinamallard, whom we saw off but not without a wee hiccup or two and then we went down to play Glenavon. Glenavon are to be commended as they distribute leaflets with the programme showing the teams for that day's game and I have to admit when I saw that Roy had selected seven defenders in his starting line-up I was less than optimistic.

As it turned out we eventually made it through after a replay, which I unfortunately missed, but I've been told we were 'lucky' as they missed a couple of 'sitters' and Dwayne Nelson made an unbelievable save near the end. Let's look at it in detail then, we played 5 games to get to the semi-final and at no time looked impressive, as i said earlier definitely nothing to get excited about. Of course we flopped in the semi, as we had done earlier in the season in the Shield semi and that is all down to the manager. Everybody says their goal should have been disallowed, but forget about the 'sitter' they missed and hitting the post when it looked easier to score, we could in all honesty have been dead and buried by halftime. we did play some fantastic football but no end product and it's 'goals that count'.

Then came the 'dreaded' penalty shoot-out and I could tell by the 'body language' of our team that we didn't have the stomach for it, that is all down to motivation, which comes from management. We may have a clean slate for all the wrong reasons as our best player, Kevin Kelbie looks to be heading out of the Showgrounds as he deliberately handed his jersey to a young fan last Saturday, obviously his last home game in a United shirt. Some smart Alec will no doubt point out that Mike Smith was selected as our best player this season, but in my opinion the 'best player' is the guy who contributes match winning performances, e.g. crucial saves, crucial tackles or in Kevin's case crucial goals and he certainly scored a few of them this season.

Roy will have a difficult time replacing him and we still haven't found that 15 goal striker to play alongside him, Andy Smith's ten goals wasn't nowhere near good enough. Let's just have a quick look at the rest of our team. Our two keepers are average, just average, they will do in a pinch, but are both a bit suspect. The two fullbacks are just that, fullbacks, yes you can push them up a bit at times but there's nobody to take their place, so it's a pointless exercise. Ramsay and Archie are really not good enough, they've been tried all over the show and let's face they're crap. Albert has some good games, but is injury prone and costs too much, while Gazza has gone to the dogs, is his time at the Showgrounds up I hope not, but we must face facts? Taggart, so heralded by Walker, runs about like a headless chicken, rarely tackles and couldn't pass water, while Aidy Watson plays hard, but when he has a stinker, which happens too often, he's a liability.

Locky I'm afraid is past it, while Gary Muir is a complete waste of space and Noel Anderson has played so many places but still fails to impress but at least he's trying. Andy Smith is a liability, who can ever forgive or forget his penalty misses against the 'scum' and the Glens, while kelbie only plays about one game in five. The Cush, who tries his eye-strings out can't get in the team, McConnell has only come back into the picture, not a great player either, but a whole hearted one. So where is this clean slate Roy's so avid about, more than half our team aren't quite good enough, while the good ones will soon be brought down to their level. It's simple, the clean slate we need is a new manager, Roy's a nice guy, but I don't think he has a clue about how to wield together a winning team. To hell with good football, get us a winning team, if you can't do that, 'get thee hence from us' (god I hope i'm not getting biblical), in other words, 'only leave'!