Bad Timing!

Greetings from sunny Spain, well if truth be known not so sunny Spain, but somewhere a little warmer than Norn Iron. But enough about us as we prepare to fly home to attend the 'theatre of dreams', the old Showgrounds, for the ill-timed meeting with Portadown. Both managers are no doubt insisting that tomorrow's game has no bearing on the cup semi-final meeting in 4 weeks time and depending on where the Ports finish in the league at 'splitting' time, there could be another meeting at Shamrock Park before the 'big' game anyway. Such is the 'organised confusion' that is the Irish league, that the only thing we can depend on is, that we can depend on nothing!

But enough chit-chat, onto the game itself, vital league points are at stake for both clubs tomorrow and for entirely different reasons. United have four games including tomorrow's encounter to play before the 'split' and the other three are away from home, so tomorrow is their last chance for home advantage before the meaningless games after the 'split'. We say meaningless as it would take a 'herculean effort' from the Whites if they were to climb clear of the relegation trap-door, but the 'Stute are a little too close to us for comfort and we need to be mindful of them. The Ports meanwhile are chasing a possible top six position at the expense of our dear friends from Ballycastle Road. Much as we'd like to help them we don't think we can, so we' need to be looking for all three points tomorrow.

How we go about getting them is anybody's guess, supposedly all we can do, is as Roy says, believe! None of us on the 'Sports team believed last week when we saw the team sheet at Lurgan, but with 15 minutes left we were converted. It turned out to be a false dawn, but the same team did the 'business' in Tuesday's night's replay and there no reason to doubt that a similar team could'nt triumph tomorrow. Neither manager will want to show his hand too much, but both games will be entirely different scenarios and with that in mind all we can say is, come on United, let's shag those apple pickers!