Heroes Return!

Someone remarked to us the other week that we had loads of ex-players plying their trade with other Irish league clubs. This is of course true, but we're sure the same could be said of most clubs in this day and age, when players can move so freely between clubs. It's fairly prevalent in the Premier league, but even more so in the first division. Take tomorrow's opponents, first division club Ards, whom we meet in the C.I.S. cup. They have four former United players in their line-up and their manager, Justin McBride, is a former player also. It's fair to say, we believe, that the player most fondly remembered by United supporters will be midfielder Darren Lockhart. The big man was a star in our midfield during his spell here and when he decided this season that he wanted an easier passage, it was a disappointment to us all.

Of the rest the one to make the biggest impression, in our opinion, was goalkeeper Aaron Kerr, as neither Mark Picking nor Fitzy (Darren Fitzgerald), realised anywhere near their full potential in a United shirt. The term flattered to deceive is the one that springs to mind when considering, not only these two players, but many others who have donned the United jersey over the years. That's not to say that they will give us an easy passage tomorrow, far from it we imagine, in short they will be out to show that they still have something to offer and we'd best be on our guard, or things could get very embarrassing. With Andy Smith and Ryan Berry coming through a reserve game unscathed, both may make tomorrow's panel, but we still expect Roy to pick his strongest starting eleven.

This in turn should entail that Albert Watson plays his 31st league cup game in a United shirt, beating Nigel Boyd's long standing 30 game record in the process. In the previous round United accounted for Banbridge Town and manager Walker picked a strong team for that game and we expect nothing less from him tomorrow. Our four top marksmen, Cutch (5), Gibbo (4), Murray (4)and Hanly (3)will need to be on top of their form if we are to progress to the next round of this money-spinning competition. It's unlikely that Walker, barring injuries, will tamper too much with his selection, as the team almost picks itself, but he may want to tweak things just a wee bit. Whatever team he picks, they will have to do the business, Ards will see to that, so we need to be up for it from the start. So come on Sky Blues, let's shag those Scrabo Towerians!