The week began and ended with the men’s premier team who played their last two regularly scheduled league games one on Saturday and then again on the following Wednesday evening. In the first game they were at home to Sapperton and served up a lacklustre performance to tie the scoreless game. United lost two vital points in the divisional title race and they now had to wait for fate to provide them with an albeit remote chance of a divisional play-off. United would need a combination of a Sporting loss and a United win over Pegasus. On a different note the point for Sapperton was enough to earn them the final provincial berth and they were naturally pleased with the result. Neither team looked remotely capable of creating any scoring chances on the day and the closest United came to scoring was midway through the first half when a Craig Dalrymple free-kick from thirty yards out caught the visiting keeper off guard and he had to stretch backwards to flip the dipping shot over the bar.

The division one team played immediately afterwards against Clan Alumni and secured a hard earned 2-0 victory which when coupled with other results gave them the divisional title for the second successive year. United won on two fine individual goals from Sean Kelly in the first half and from Maarten Koorn with the insurance marker in the second frame. United got outstanding performances from Junaid Rasheed and Chris Powell who with a little better finishing might have scored two goals. However, those four players all earned themselves a call up for the premier team on the Wednesday evening.

On Sunday United’s master team won their cup-semi-final 1-0 against arch rivals Surrey Firefighters in nail biting fashion. Striker Dave Harkisson gave United the lead midway through the second frame but United missed a great opportunity to ice the victory when striker Murray Howes had his penalty shot save by the Firefighter keeper who had crawled along the goal line to push out the shot!

By the time the Wednesday night game rolled around United knew that a win would earn them a divisional play-off as Metro-Ford defeated Sporting by a 1-0 margin the previous Sunday. So with everything to play for and the injection of three young players in the line-up United showed more offence in the first ten minutes than they had done in the entire Sapperton game.

After twenty minutes of play United deservedly took the lead when Shawn Blakeway turned quickly and broke down the right before cutting back an inch perfect cross for Mike Evans to take the pass in his stride and hammer the ball into the corner of the net from fifteen yards out.

A great shot from thirty yards by Cory Janzen seemed to be goalbound until the Pegasus keeper reached up to fingertip the ball over the bar. United almost got caught out early in the second half but keeper Drew Smiley pulled off a great save to deny the home team. United came surging forward playing some inventive soccer and created several scoring chances thanks to the dominant midfield play of youngster Sean Kelly, Rob Wilson and Cory Janzen and the ever threatening presence of forwards Mike Evans and Shawn Blakeway. United finally got the insurance marker at the sixtieth minute when Evans’ purposeful cross-field ball to substitute Chris Powell saw the youngster beat his man before firing over a low cross into the penalty area for Cory Janzen to run onto and score from close range. Kelly hit the cross-bar with a wonderful cheeky lob, Janzen the post and Blakeway and Janzen again came close to notching further goals. However, United didn’t need any further scoring to secure the three points they needed and now face Sporting in the divisional play-off at Newton Athletic Park 31st March 2004 at 8.30pm.

In women’s action our ladies’ premier team lost 2-0 in the cup-semi-final to fierce rivals Coquitlam City and must now wait until April 17th for their next competitive action which will be the first round of the provincial cup. The game was a close affair with both sides giving everything they had. United had a scare early on when the ball flashed across their six yard box and eluded forwards and defenders. In the twentieth minute United carved out their best effort of the game when Sara Maglio brushed aside two defenders en route to goal but watched agonizingly has her shot past the advancing keeper rolled inches wide of the post.

In the second half, Coquitlam had the better of the play and after some constant pressure scored two goals in a five minute span starting at the seventieth minute that broke the deadlock and the hearts of the United players. The first was a scramble in the United six yard box which Coquitlam forced over the line despite the best efforts of United keeper Wendy Hawthorne and defender Mylee Ross. The second was a fine strike by Coquitlam midfielder Amber Allen who crashed a firm drive into the net from twenty yards.

Shawn Blakeway of the mens premier team was in outstanding form in both premier games is this week’s player of the week. Each Weekly Winner will have their name entered into a random draw for the month for Dinner for Two.