Point(s) Taken!

Not having been to the match last week I had to rely on reports from various sources. The one point that they agreed on to a man or woman, was the number of chances Warrenpoint Town created and didn't take them. If they had just taken one of these chances and not had a man sent off for what can best be described as a clumsy challenge, the outcome might have been different, or were the Sky Blues just doing enough to get the three points. That's a dangerous game to be playing, when you take your foot off the 'gas' its so easy to get complacent and that's the road to no points.

Thankfully that didn't happen and United recorded their 3rd win in a row, but in this league you don't get any respite and next up are the 'Ducks', still smarting from that 3-0 reverse at the hands of United in the league cup. A win over the Ducks would mean United leapfrogging them in the league table to 8th place at least. But they'll not be making life easy for us and I fully expect a ding-dong battle for the points, in front of a bigger crowd than average, for the fixture coincides with a Corporate dinner, so it should make for a good atmosphere and hopefully a good match with the 'right' result.

All we can ask is that our players go out with the same hunger as they have shown since the Portadown league cup game and if they do that we should claim the three points. The Cush has found a rich vein of scoring form of late and I'm sure he will come in for extra marking, but David is a player who can cope with that and all he needs is a sniff at goal and he'll make you pay the ultimate price. It looks as if Fergie's going to continue with his striker-less formation and Addis in goal, his policy is, if its not broke, don't fix it and he's been right so far, but from here on it its going to get a lot tougher, come on Sky Blues!

(H) Ard Work!

You´ll have to forgive my attempt at humour, I´m in Spain where the weatrher is not so sunny today, but not too bad, I would only say it´s about 14 dg centrigrade tonight, warm enough to go out without a coat, but only just. But enough about me and my millionaire lifestyle, ha ha, but what about this team of ours and it´s two match unbeaten run. Well that´ll count for nothing if we don´t manage a win or at the very least, a draw away to Warrenpoint (Dungannon) on Saturdary. I was well pleased with our victory on Saturday, but not pleased with us defensive performance, the ease with which Ards got through our defence for their two goals was not too pretty to watch.

For their first goal, it was like our defenders were mesmerised and as they just stood idly by and watched as Ards scored. The second was worse, for it was like the bad old days of old when a certain Roy ´only believe´Walker was our manager and we couldn´t defend set pieces. That is basic defending, but luckily we learned from that mistake and we were sound from then on. I´m not going to dwell on the controversies of the first half, that has been well covered earlier, but suffice to say if the letter of the law had been followed we wouldn´t have anything to complain about.

Now a word about Gary Thompson, who signed a two-year extension to his contract on Saturday. He tuned in an exemplanary performance on Saturday, surpassing that which he did on Tuesday night against Ports in the league cup and that was some display, keep it up Gary and encourage your teammates to do so also. I know in my heart and my head it is impossible for Gary to keep playing at that level all the time, but its nice to see him fulfil the promise that he showed when he moved to the Showgrounds and his goals are a real bonus.

United set sail for Stangmore Park on Saturday to play Warrnenpoint Town and it is ground that holds no fear for us now, for we have got a few results the last few times we have been. The ´Point will pose a different problem than Dungannon and they are bottom of the league which does make them try a little harder and they´ll want to turn over United for the second time. As long as we go with the ´right attitude´,we should have no problem in getting a result, but if we go with a ´who cares attitude´, we will end up with egg on our faces and we don´t want that, so come on Sky Blues!

That's Better!

When Bruce Balmer and me were making our way from Solitude on Saturday, after United had surrendered to a Chickenville team who weren't a shadow of the team that won the league cup and Gibson cup last season, we were fearing the worst and not looking forward to Tuesday night. When I received the text on twitter on said Tuesday night, of the team Spike had selected, I thought about turning on my heel and retreating to my car, but I had already made the effort to be there and I thought 'what the hell' and I may well go and see the game, you never know and as it turned out, that was the correct decision. Spike made only two changes from side that capitulated at Solitude, but there was a transformation in their attitude as they put Portadown to the sword.

Captain Jenks, who was the chief culprit on Saturday, as United spurned several chances, didn't have any luck against Ports, but he led the line well and allowed players like Tony K, Thommo and Sparky to express themselves fully. Tony K was so magnificent, that Bruce Balmer broke with tradition and actually awarded him a score of 9 in his player rating, heady stuff indeed. If we had one weak link it was Marky McCullagh, but in all fairness to him, he was up against probably one of the best strikers in the league, Kevin Braniff and Marky seen him off (subbed), after 66 mins. It has to said we got a bit of luck with the Cush free-kick early on, but from then on, they're was only going to be one winner as the Sky Blues took control of the game.

After the distraction of the league cup, United get back to league action with a home game against Ards on Saturday and it looks like a game we must win as Ards are 2 points behind us in the table and a win for them would see us drop to 11th place in the league, relegation play-off spot, it doesn't bear thinking about. But we must be positive and the 'Sport's team are of the opinion that Spike will lead us away from the danger zone, anything else is unthinkable. Barring injuries, will Spike pick the same team, or will he go back to his favoured 4,3,3 formation, as usual its anybody's guess. Stuarty Addis, never put a foot wrong on Tuesday night and it looks like Dwayne will have a fight on his hands in order to claim the keepers jersey, but what do we know?

The Sky Blue crew after this weekends match, are off on their travels to sunnier climes (Southern Spain) and there will be no 'match report' on United's match against Warrenpoint Town at Stangmore Park, on November 23 (not wanting to blow his head up, but Jordan Miller does a good match report on United's official website). But we hope to be back when the Ducks visit the Showgrounds on November 30. I have tremendous news for all our followers, Sky Blue Sport, will have an exclusive interview with the 'Ballymena Boy' the legend that is Norman Clarke. We asked Norman eleven questions and he answered them truthfully with nothing held back and I feel sure that it will make fascinating reading for any and all Sky Blue Fans. We haven't decided yet, but I think we will publish them in 3 or 4 instalments, watch this space for news of this coup for Sky Blue Sport. East or West, Sky Blue Sport is the best!!!

Laughing Hyena!

I drove up to the Showgrounds last Saturday and as it was lashing and I was early, I turned Radio Ulster to get a bit of pre-match craic. At that time every Saturday, unless there's something more important like rugby or tiddlywinks (I can't tell the difference, anyway), they usually have someone involved in football, past or present, to give few hints about his personal life. For instance, what's his favourite song, what's the most or least important number on his phone, in other words a load of crap. But occasionally you get a laugh and so it was on Saturday. The recipient was none other than retired referee, Alan 'I'm never right' Snoddy. I was flabbergasted, not only by the presenters who had the gall to ask the man who blighted every match he ever officiated in, but I was even more shocked that Snoddy had agreed to bare his soul, so to speak.

One of the things he was at pains to point out he said and I quote, 'managers only complain when their side loses', I never heard so much nonsense in my life. It was typical of the matches Alan was officiating in, that both managers were astounded by 90% of his decisions and both sets of spectators were dumbfounded. But I have to say that matches where he was officiating, were never dull, if they were threatening to be dull, he would drop a clanger, like awarding a team a goal when everybody in the ground could see it wasn't or sending somebody off for a questioning a decision or if he didn't like the colour of their eyes. He always seemed to me to have a secret smile on his face, perhaps he was smiling in the knowledge that he was going to influence the game one way or another and maybe he had a need to have everybody hate him and he generally succeeded.

But I digress here, as usual the Sky Blues showed promise in the 1st half against the Glens but didn't come out in the 2nd half and paid the price. But they created enough chances to win the game, but it would have been cruel luck on the opposition who at times played us off the park, but I usually say, football is a game about taking your chances. Guilty of this in the 1st half was Cush, when he shot straight at Glens keeper Morris, when he should've scored and only Captain Jenks knows how he missed from point-blank range when United were leading 1-0, crashing a shot against the crossbar when it looked easier to score. But the biggest miss of all came in 2nd half, when Liggie miskicked with the goal at his mercy. If we had been having summery weather, he could've blamed the firmness of the pitch, but he had no such excuses, it was a dreadful miss and would've made the score 3-3 and who knows what could've happened then.

As it was, the Glens broke down the pitch and scored another goal to tie up the points, what was the United defence thinking of to leave Ruddy (who had been getting a tanking all day), one-on-one with his tormentor, Glens 'man of match' Jordan Stewart, it was foolhardy in the extreme. Next up for United is a trip to Solitude to play the champions, Chickenville and United need to do something to stop the rot which has saw them concede 30 goals in 14 matches so far in the league campaign. Chickenville are not firing on all cylinders this term yet, but they have a couple of prolific strikers in Boyce and Gormely and their midfielders are no slouches when it comes to putting the ball in the net, so we need everybody on their game. We don't normally play well on artificial surfaces, but there's three of them in the league now and we best get used to them, where better to start than at Solitude on Saturday, COSB