Fluffy Landing!

The league champions come to town tomorrow no doubt hoping for a repeat of the goal glut they inflicted on Kilmore Rec in the County Antrim shield on Wednesday past. We at 'Sport can tell the 'fat controller' and his overpaid stars, there will be no 'fluffy landing' for them at the Showgrounds tomorrow. We are on a roll, they have had a couple of easy passages lately and sandwiched in between a wee blip last week down at Newry, while the Sky Blues have had to battle for every precious point. That we believe will be the difference between the two teams tomorrow, the Blues will think, maybe even believe, they can take us tomorrow with consummate ease, we on the other hand know it will be a battle from start to finish.

United manager Roy Walker has been quiet on the likely make-up of his team, but barring injuries we expect United to start with their most cohesive unit. That will mean a place on the bench for Andy Smith, as United's strike-force of the terrible twins, Cutch and Gibbo, with 10 goals between them in all competitions will surely get the nod. The midfield four of, Mikey (Smith), Nathan, Gazza and Eamon, would be hard to displace, while we expect the fullbacks to be Sparky and Archie, which means Lee Colligan will have to wait to play his 90th game in a Sky Blue shirt. Then there's the two men who have been our 'man of the match' in our last 2 games, the veteran Albert and his young apprentice Denver. These two guys backed up by Dwayne in goals are the vital cogs in our defensive machine, another top class performance from them tomorrow and victory will surely be ours.

Linfield will of course have other ideas and we had hoped for a strong referee, but if that wasn't possible, then a fair one. The referee on this occasion is Antrim official Alan Black, who needs no introduction to United fans. We had two really bad experiences of him last season, but in his one and only game this season, we had little cause for complaint, so fingers crossed, maybe tomorrow he'll be as irrelevant, as referees should be. Tomorrow sees the first corporate dinner of this season and it should ensure a good turn out of 'home' fans, while the visitors could maybe partially fill our newly refurbished Warden Street stand, but filling the 2,200 seats is maybe beyond even Linfield. All in all it should augur well for a good atmosphere and with a bit of luck and a lot of skill the right result. So come on Sky Blues, let's shag those Donegal Road ewes!