Shield Yield!

Tomorrow night sees the quest for a trophy begin in earnest when United entertain the hatchet men (Crusaders), in the first round/Quarter-final, of the County Antrim Shield. This is probably our best hope of stopping the trophy famine which is entering it's 21st year. Admittedly it won't be easy as the Shore Road men are the holders of the trophy and in any case matches between us are usually pretty much, nip and tuck. Maybe after our last gasp defeat to them at Seaview last Tuesday, we will get the breaks this time. But don't count on it, football by it's very nature, is an unpredictable sport and tomorrow night's game definitely falls into that category.

United manager Roy Walker has promised to field his strongest eleven and as this is our best hope of winning a trophy, we expect nothing less. This means that Cutch will journey over from Scotland tomorrow afternoon and can hopefully add to his impressive goal tally (4 goals already),in tomorrow night's game, which will be played to a finish. We expect the rest of the team to line-up as on Saturday, barring any injuries, sustained against the Reds, which in such a brutal game could only be expected. Referee Burns gave us practically no protection last Saturday, but hopefully we'll have a good strong official in charge tomorrow night.

The Sky Blues have a chance to gain some revenge for our last minute 'mugging' on the plastic pitch at Seaview last Tuesday, when a mishit shot by Coates cancelled out Cutch's early goal, before Jordan Owen, notched an even later winner, which left a bad taste in the mouth. United will need to come out strong and to stay strong, there will be no call for 'namby pamby' football, just good hard graft and oodles of skill. If we apply ourselves to the task, there's no reason why we can't win, if we are found wanting, the quest will go on. As Gazza likes to say in his Blog, 'United we stand, divided we fall', so come on Sky Blues, let's shag those paper tigers!