Double Hatchet!

United face the Crusader's 'Hatchet-men' in the first game of a double header, in the much delayed C.I.S. cup game and the winners will be rewarded with a 'lucrative' semi-final game away to Distillery (okay we're just poking fun here). The Crues will return to the Showgrounds for a league game on Saturday, as the saying goes, it never rains but it pours. The hatchet men are really living up to their name at the moment as they seem to have a player sent off every other game and it'll probably be a no quarter asked or given game tomorrow night and similar on Saturday. United were dealt a body blow with the news that midfield dynamo, Gavin 'Westy' Taggart will be missing for two months with his broken nose. With this in mind United manager Roy Walker has signed former United player Ruari McClean and his battling qualities will maybe cushion the loss of Westy somewhat.

Unfortunately Ruari isn't eligible for tomorrow night or for the Irish cup replay at the Oval next Tuesday, but will help to bolster our numbers as injuries and suspensions start to mount over the coming weeks. Albert Watson is set to make his 300th appearance for United tomorrow night, a ten year veteran and only 26, he is the backbone of our team. Barring injuries it's entirely possible that United will start with the same 11 players who started on Saturday, but manager Walker may want to 'tinker' with his selection a little. It would be fair to say that one or two of our players were below par last week and we can ill afford a repeat tomorrow night. The game will be played to a finish and if it goes to penalties, we just hope we're better prepared than we were in last season's Irish cup semi-final, the body language of our players said it all.

It was nice to see 'big' Denver break his scoring duck on Saturday and now that the pressure's off perhaps we'll get a few more from the Clough crusader at set-pieces. According to press reports, Denver, Gibbo, Sparky,Taggart and Nathan have all shook hands on an extension to their contract and Mikey is expected to follow suit in the next few days. The Cutch, who had already agreed an extension, is still on course to equal Kevin 'King' Kelbie's goal ratio of last season. Cutch has 11 goals from 26 appearances, while Kevin notched 14 from 30 appearances, it would be nice to see him reach the milestone sooner rather than later. Eamon Murray, suffering with breathing problems last week will hopefully be back to his torturing best and his resourceful wing play should bring the Sky Blues closer to a possible trophy so craved by the long suffering United fans. The game is there to be won, we have the players to win it, so let's go out and do it, let's shag those paper tigers!