U's:2 Shaymen:2

I’ll kick off with a pearler of a quote from Mr James Quinn:

“I hate to see players looking nervous – there’s no reason for that at all. It’s not as if they’re in Iraq with people firing bullets at them.”

So there you go folks – the moral of the story is that there's no excuse for getting nervous at work unless you’ve got a terrorist pointing an M-16 at you.

It was certainly a case of two points dropped on Saturday against Halifax. I didn’t think we played that badly but, in contrast to the rest of the season, profligacy in front of goal cost us dearly.

The visitors took the lead in the 17th minute, after a scrappy opening quarter in which neither side created anything of note. Despite a distinct lack of appeals from the Halifax players, referee Halliday decided Jon Shaw’s tumble under challenge from Morrison warranted a penalty. It probably was a foul by Morro, who looked to be holding the strikers shirt, but if a penalty was given every time a similar incident occurred there would be about 30 per match. No matter, Shaw dusted himself off to send Potter the wrong way and United were behind again.

Mr Halliday appears to be from the school of refs who think that making big exaggerated hand gestures makes you Pierluigi Collina. I’ve got news for you mate, it doesn’t – it just makes you look like a twat who’s decided to practice semaphore on a football pitch. If he had concentrated less on playing to the crowd, and more on the laws of the game, he might’ve applied the rules a bit more consistently. As it was, there were periods of Saturday’s match where any hint of physical contact resulted in a free kick, while at other times players seemed to be able to get away with murder.

United were behind for just six minutes, as Marvellous-ish Marvin Robinson struck the equaliser on his debut. Rendell flicked Gleeson’s cross field pass wide to Pitt, whose douzey of a cross took out both the keeper and an inrushing defender, allowing Marv to score from close range.

Back came Halifax, and stand in skipper Danny Potter was quickly off his line to foil Daryl Taylor, who burst through a square looking backline but saw his shot blocked.

With half time looming, Shaw received his marching orders for a crude elbow on Morrison. The ex-Burton striker was getting visibly more and more wound up by the fans in the Habbin, who were telling him exactly what they thought of his penalty-getting antics. Having been booked for dissent moments earlier, Shaw launched into his assault on Morro which, while possibly not deliberate, certainly merited a second yellow if not the straight red it received.

We began the second half purposefully, using the width of the pitch to exploit our extra man. This paid off when Robinson teed up Wolleaston, whose first time shot from just outside the area rocketed past the keeper into the top corner. Hurrah!

A third goal would surely have killed off the visitors, but United couldn’t find the target: Gleeson dragged a cross-cum-shot wide, Quinton and Reed were denied by the keeper, and when Marvin tucked away the second rebound he was flagged offside.
After that little spell United sat back, happy to hit aimless long balls in the direction of Robbo and the out-of-sorts looking Scott Rendell. Although Marv had a penalty appeal turned down when he tumbled (rather theatrically) over the ‘Fax keeper, it came as no surprise when, with seven minutes left, the brilliantly named Cortez Belle blasted a shot past the keeper after a long throw had caused problems in the U’s defence.

Even then United had chances to win it. Pitt drove a shot wide when well placed, then forced a great save from the keeper with a close range header. And with the last kick of the match, sub Lee Boylan almost wriggled through the defence, but he couldn’t quite get his shot away and the chance was blocked.

So yeah, definitely a two points dropped, and it was a shame we couldn’t keep our composure against an eminently beatable side. I can’t help but think that if the suspended Albrighton and the benched LFW had been on the pitch the outcome might have been different. Certainly without the former the defence looked a lot less solid than it has done in recent weeks

Man of the Match: Danny Potter – Captain for the day put in an inspirational performance, sweeping up behind his porous looking backline and making several good saves to keep Halifax at bay. It would be good if he stopped diving the wrong way for penalties though.







Have you seen this man?

Naff-tattoo of the match: Matt Doughty, or rather the stars he has all the way up one of his arms. It’s not a good look.












Doughty and the missus?