Ball(in) Breakers!

United need to be in ruthless mode tomorrow when they take on Ballinamallard in the 2nd round of the Irish cup, or else they will come a cropper. Tomorrow isn't about nice clean crisp football, all that matters is the victory, pretty or ugly, it makes no difference. Andy Smith, having served his six game ban for an attempted head-butt, is available for selection but manager Roy Walker may give the former Portadown player a place on the bench and say 'same again' to his starting line-up of Tuesday night. That of course is assuming that we have no new injuries, Chris Ramsay did seem to pick up a bit of a knock, but he is a fast healer.

Let's hope the players have come down to the ground after outplaying league leaders Cliftonville last Tuesday, as we need t be fully focused tomorrow. We confess to knowing nothing re-Ballinamallard, except that former Linfield player Andy Crawford is among their players. Have no doubts this team will be up for this game as they would like nothing better than to embarrass the Sky Blues and we badly need to get to the next round of this premier competition. As any United fan can tell you, 1989 was a long time ago, 21 years to be precise and our name on the 'cup' once more is long overdue. But let's not get carried away, first things first as they say, memories of the Ards match are fairly fresh in the mind and a repeat performance tomorrow would be hard to bear.

Hopefully big Gary and Roy will have down their work behind the scenes and the sky Blues will come out like they did on Tuesday night, firing from the hip. Unfortunately Johnny McLaughlin isn't eligible for this game having played for his previous club Mosside in an earlier round, as this would have been an ideal game for him to 'cut his United teeth', so to speak. To the best of our knowledge Gary Muir, who has made an emphatic start to his United career is eligible to play and if he can continue on the vein of form he has shown in his first two games, he looks to have a bright future in Sky Blue colours.

Will the manager restore Seven Towers supporters club, 'player of the month', Ogers to nets after he kept us in the competition in our previous Irish cup game against Ards, with three magnificent stops or go with the rejuvenated Dwayne Nelson, who has played in our last two games. That dear friends is anybody's guess, but one thing's clear, whoever gets the nod will have to perform at their best, or it will be curtains for us. So come on Sky Blues, let's shag those Erner's!