A goal down after 30 seconds, scored by "Marconi Old-boy" Francis Awaratefe and it looked as though the doom & gloom surrounding Bossley Park after last week's debacle would hang around for a while longer. When Kris Trajanovski missed a penalty 3 minutes later this seemed to be confirmed. Undaunted, however, the ever optimistic Forza Fred proclaimed, "Nae Worries! We'll still win this easily".
It looked like Forza might have to eat his words though as Marconi played some "pretty" football without ever threatening to score and United, playing a much more ruthless, sometimes brutal style, peppered the Stallions' goal.
The tide turned somewhat just before half-time when John Gibson fired in a fairly innocuous low shot from around 30 yards (metres for Sebastian and the younger brigade) which beat the keeper who had probably stiffened up from lack of work.
At half-time in the clubhouse, Forza reiterated his prediction to all and sundry over a couple of schooners, even predicting Marconi to win by 3 goals.
The second half vindicated Fred's faith as the game became a procession to the back of the United net, which coincidentally was at the scoreboard end, where Forza had positioned himself just behind the goal in order to give the young united keeper, Steve Tolios, one-on-one goalkeeping advice.
Traja made amends for his first half penalty miss with a beautifully flighted chip over the wall into the top corner from a free kick just outside the box. Then Archie Thompson did what he was brought to Bossley Park to do, twice coolly slotting home, the second from a classic through ball supplied by Kim. Archie's two goals were "nothing special" - just classic finishing from a class finisher.
United managed to pull one back with 15 minutes to go from a weak shot which bobbled around a bit then bounced over Aceski who had dived too early and probably unnecessarily - perhaps David Marshall was right when he said the surface at Bossley Park looked a bit patchy.
Eddie brought on his subs with 5 minutes to go, giving Thompson & Trajanovski a well earned rest. Big Royce Brownlie made good use of his "five minutes of fame" and netted the fifth goal, keeping himself in the coach's sights.
The game was watched by a reasonable crowd of around 5,500 though there were a lot of empty seats in the season ticket holders' area - perhaps the "card-board cutouts" were damp from our last home game. To United's credit there was no spectator trouble, just some good-humoured heckling between the two sets of opposing fans - an NO FLARES.