Plastic Farce!

United travel to North Belfast tomorrow for their first game on Cliftonville's new 'plastic pitch'. When Crusaders announced that they were going to be playing on a plastic pitch in future, we thought, yeah! yeah! and Santa Claus really does come down the chimney. But lo and behold they were not joking and now Cliftonville, whose pitch it must be said used to resemble a cabbage patch, have installed an artificial surface as well. They are not conductive to good football it must be said and unless they're laid properly, they are more of a hindrance than an asset. But it looks like they're here to stay and if rumours are to be believed there could be at least 2 more Premier clubs signing up to the plastic revolution.

As for tomorrow's line-up we just don't have a clue, Nathan Hanly will definitely be missing as he serves an automatic one game ban following his harsh sending off on Tuesday past. The rest of the team, barring injuries of course, almost picks itself. Gibbo and Cutch up front, Mikey and Murray on the wings, Gazza in central midfield, with Taggart or somebody else as his sparring partner. The back four is a matter of picking any four from five, from Albert, Sparky, Denver, Lee and Archie, while we would expect Ryan Brown to retain the keepers jersey. Of course Roy may astound us and go for a 4,3,3 system, bringing in Andy Smith, instead of Gavin Taggart, but we feel it's imperative that our hosts aren't given too much time on the ball and for this reason believe that a 4,4,2 system will prevail.

Cliftonville have struggled over the last few games, as we have done ourselves and the 'winner' tomorrow, will definitely take it all. If United win they will move above their hosts and if Cliftonville win they'll attain a bit of a gap between themselves and the dreaded bottom six. After tomorrow's game we will be past the halfway stage in the league, but we must disagree, with the claim made by Omar last night, that doubling our points tally will see us safely into the top six, when the split arrives after 33 games. As some one once said 'there are lies, damned lies and statistics' and acquiring 48 points may be enough in some seasons, but it can't be put down as a 'marker' for every season, we will just have to suck it and see. With that in mind let's get behind the wee Sky Blues tomorrow, so come on Sky Blues, let's shag those Cavehillers!