Die Dog!

There's an old saying about when things are desperate, choices have to be made and United are at that point tomorrow. In such a situation it has been known for desperate people to utter the immortal words, 'die dog or shite the licence'. United desperately need to win tomorrow in order to reap the financial awards of a semi-final, which is the stepping stone to the final. With an almost fully fit squad to select from, minus the two ineligible players, Muir and Mackers, manager Walker will need to be bold in his team selection. Surely this will mean a start for the mercurial Cushley, not a place on the bench as United need to go for the jugular early on.

Glenavon's last two results have been poor, but tomorrow is a different 'ball game' and Marty will have them fired up for this one. Tony Grant is rated as doubtful for the home side, but United will do well to ignore this bit of information as injuries have a habit of disappearing when there is a cup game to be contested. Former Sky Blue, Stuarty King, will be hoping to get a start, but United have the players to nullify anything Stuarty has to offer. King's shortcomings are well known to us, as he spent four years at the Showgrounds most of which were non-productive. Albert Watson, after his horrific injury sustained at the hands of Timmy Adamson (who freely admits to hate Ballymena), is fit and raring to go and will surely come into the reckoning for a defensive place.

If Albert plays as looks likely, this would in return release Mike Smith into a more attacking right-midfield role. This would leave five players vying for the central midfield role, while up front only Kelbie is assured of his place and Andy Smith may lose out to Sparky as Kevin's strike partner. As we said earlier the manager must be bold in his team selection for tomorrow's game as we don't want to be falling behind and must take the game to the home team. If we can get among them and our midfield can limit the supply to Molloy and Costello, we can frustrate them a wee bit. If we fail in this task then we're afraid this will prove to be be our undoing. So come on United, let's shag those Armagh boys!