Plastic Studs?

United will make their debut on Seaview's plastic pitch tomorrow, but only if the access areas are free from frost. Hopefully the game will get the go-ahead as this enforced absence has not been in the least enjoyable. United have now got three players missing through suspension, Andy Smith serves the first of his 6 match ban, Aiden Watson serves his single ban and the same applies to Chris Ramsay, who has signed a contract extension to the end of the current season. United will therefore have to dig deep into their reserves for this fixture at the tight Shore road venue which is being played on an alien surface. The conditions will not be ideal, but we'll have to get on with it.

If our attitude is right there's no reason why we can't get something from the game as in our previous two games the Crues were no great shakes. United manager Roy Walker and his back-room staff will have assessed our players during their acclimatisation on the Seaview pitch this week and hopefully will get the mix right. Roy has many options at his disposal, most of which centre around long term injured duo, Paul Muir and Gary Haveron. If these two players are match fit he may go with 3 at the back and a 5 man midfield, but we at 'Sport think the narrow Seaview pitch is more suited to either 4,4,2 or an attacking 4,3,3 formation, our manager may of course think different.

It would be great to see big Gazza lead the boys out tomorrow, but realistically our management may want to play him back in gradually and at Seaview we can expect a hard physical game as usual. Nathan McConnell will have a chance over the coming weeks to stake his claim for partnering Kelbie, while new signing James McLaughlin must wait for the reserves to play 3 games before he can get into action and Andy Smith serves his 6 game ban. Tomorrow would be a good time to start as you mean to continue big man. So, (hopefully), it's all systems go for tomorrow in Tiger's bay, so come on Sky Blues, let's shag those Shore Road sheep!