What about our wee country?

A Ballymena win on Saturday will hardly be of the stature of OWC's great victory of Wednesday night, but a decent performance can put us on good footing for the league kick-off in just a week. It seems like less than one year ago that we were preparing for a season full of optimism with a few big signings and the Odense performance behind us, but perhaps the season was disappointing. This season we've got to hope we have the 'Wright' man at the helm though and a good finish to the CIS group stage might lift our optimism.

Glenavon of course aren't exactly England. Having lost four games out of four, they should be easy pickings for a side with aspirations of a top five finish. United's CIS hopes could, however, be equated to Northern Ireland's hopes of qualifying. While Our Wee Country was totally out of the running, the Sky Blues merely need a miracle to get through. Wins for United in our next two games against the Mid-Ulster teams would give us only a slight chance, but Woy can't be relied on for much, never mind the performance we need from his Newry side to beat Portadown on Saturday or lose to Glenavon next week.

Skybluesport don't normally espouse such pessimism but it's down to the Sky Blues to get two wins in our next games. We've shown we can potentially beat both the Mid Ulster "big two" so far this season and we fancy the Sky Blues to get a good run going into the more important league campaign. Glenavon should be easy pickings and any team which feels Jamie Marks is a useful addition has the potential to be turned over. So Skybluesport predict 6 points for the Sky Blues to lead us in to a successulf league campaign. Regardless of Newry's results, two wins are vital to get us on track.

With the Sky Blues likely to be missing our playmaker in the form of Rory Hamill, perhaps it will be a chance for Tommy to show the potential of new signings such as McDowell and Kelbie. Gary Smyth should be back though and our ever optimistic captain has predicted a 8-1 victory by the Sky Blues in a private interview he gave to Skybluesport. We're backing Gary's prediction. Gary also expressed his pleasure at OWC's great performance last night, stating "Carlsberg don't do football but if they did every night would be like Wednesday night, Ballymena will win 8-1 and Newry will turnover Portadown, leaving our group wide open for the sheepshagging sky blues!"

We're not Brazil, we're Northern Ireland. 1-0!