White Magic!

The last holiday before Christmas, Halloween, is upon us and it seems only fitting that we, the Ballymena United 'we' that is, have the right to expect some magic. To date we've been subjected to so much dross at home that we grown to expect it. But we also have the right to expect our team to 'try' and turn this round and tomorrow would be as good as time as any. Who can forget the way we blew tomorrow's opponents, Lisburn Distillery, away in the first match of this campaign and followed this up by racing into the 3-0 goal lead in our 2nd match here at the Showgrounds against Glenavon, in the first 30 minutes of the match. But alas and alack it's all being downhill since, sure we have performed on the road, but it's the home form we need to address.

Our former manager, Tommy 'never' Wright, has his team pumped up to stop 'the rot', which saw them lose the last 6 matches. But we should have too much fire-power, with leading scorer Cutch and Jordy both on the score-sheet last week, running in to form. But the 'key man' as far as we are concerned, is midfielder Ally Teggart, he has the ability to turn games. Of course our defence have been known to have the odd lapse in concentration and it's not known if Dicky Vauls is fit to resume, which would let Archie move inside to partner Cookie, while Curtis Woods looks like he's going to tie down the rightback slot. Eamon Murray, getting back to fitness would be our choice in right-midfield, bur manager Walker seems to be determined to play Downey there and he's looking sharper with every game.

A win tomorrow would set us up nicely for our next three games on the road, away to scum next Saturday, Portadown the next week and the Irn Bru league cup match away to Dergview on Wednesday November 16. These are going to be the toughest fixtures we have played in a sequence this season, but it'll set us up nicely for the tough times ahead. The manager will probably go with the team that started and finished last Saturday's, if Vauls isn't fit, or he could second guess us as he's done on a number of occasions and pick several different personnel. But we think he'll not want to tamper with his tactics too much, the Whites will be a different proposition from Carrick, but we still should triumph, let's have some of that 'white magic', come on Sky Blues, let's shag those Lisburn Lilies!

Carrick Crusaders!

United make their first trip to Carrick, to play Carrick Rangers, for many a long year, but Carrick no longer play at Carrick, they play at Seaview, home of the hatchet men. Confused, yes we are too. It can only happen in the Irish league, simply tell the authorities that you're going to install a plastic pitch and it won't be ready to December, what December we're not quite sure. Now you'd think that a big professional set-up like the Irish league would have been insisting Carrick make a feasibility study and get the dates set in stone. As it turns out Carrick (due to a technicality), can't have a plastic pitch and will have to re-sow their grass pitch and they and the Irish league have committed a major balls-up which makes us a laughing stock in these British isles, needless to say this was all done in the name of progress.

Now we've got that off our chest let's concentrate on the match tomorrow, at a venue where United tend to come unstuck. The United manager will have to change his starting line-up of last Saturday, due to injuries to Aaron Boyd and Dick Vauls and we've heard on the grapevine keeper Wayne Drummond and defender Liam Watson are both doubtful. If these four are missing the manager will have a headache deciding on his line-up, normally big Denver would be a replacement for Watson, but his views about playing on unnatural surfaces is well documented, but needs must, or there's always Chris Rodgers. Sparky would be a stop-gap replacement but his budding partnership alongside Jenks in centre-midfield needs to be nurtured.

Elvis, who scored a hat-trick for United reserves on Thursday, in a 3-3 draw,away to Portadown , will probably earn a place on the bench, although we could do with him in our starting eleven. It's a toss-up whether it's Nelson or Kerr if Drummond don't make it. Jordan Baker needs a goal to get him started again and the match at Seaview could be the one, we need someone to take the weight of Cutch's shoulders. There's the versatile Tony Kane to consider, he could play alongside Cookie or maybe fill at leftback in a pinch. But whatever Roy decides to do, he better get his team up for it, the Rangers will be up for it and we got to match them stride for stride. So come Sky Blues, let's shag those travelling people!

Memory Lane!

Just for a change the 'Sport team decided to have a day out in Bangor on Wednesday and make a holiday out of it. As we were sitting in a cafe having our lattes, Omar got all excited. He started jabbering and pointing his finger at the door and we all looked and it was a sight to behold. There stood the best striker to ever put on a United shirt, Jimmy Martin, looking dapper, with that cheeky little grin on his face, which masked a look of steely determination when he caught sight of goal. Jimmy scored 44 goals in one season for the Sky Blues and only missed one penalty, for he was the king of the 12 yard kick. He won most of the penalties himself, but he won them with a smile and nobody seemed to bear a grudge against him. That put us in good spirits for the match at Clandeboye Park, but United's play soon deflated us, it was, forgettable.

United go into tomorrow's game against the 'hatchet men' Crusaders, with some good and some bad news. The good news is Chris Rodgers was able to train on Thursday night and the bad news is Jordan Baker wasn't. This news will maybe necessitate the manager making at least one change from his starting line-up and if Baker doesn't make it, surely Aaron Boyd must get the nod. Roy seems determined to play Conor Downey, whether he's fit or not and he we must say he looked like he was getting back to form on Wednesday night, but still woefully shy of match fitness. The plastic surface at Seaview, doesn't tend to make for a pretty spectacle, but we best get used to it, for we there next week again. Results seemed to go for the team that takes their chances and minimise their mistakes, both of which we're crap at.

But given that 'never say die' which we've demonstrated in our last 3 matches away at Cliftonville, D.C. and Glens, we must have a chance. The Crues swept us aside in the first round of matches at the Showgrounds and we are definitely due a good result against them, but will it be tomorrow? We must keep the faith and we know their keeper is, to say the least, eccentric, so we should peppering him with crosses and sooner or later he will make a mistake. But we must be vigilant at the other end, with Timmy Adamson leading their attack, we can't take any chances and they have that old warhorse Davy Rainey as back up. Stuart Dallas is another who needs to be watched but he'll have his hands full trying to mark Sparky and Ally. We can do it, take the three points, come on Sky Blues, let's shag those paper tigers!

Sand Castles!

According to this weeks Ballymena Times, Roy Walker and his management team (we imagine that contains, assistant manager, first team coach, goalkeeper coach, kit-man, physio, Alfie Stewart and any other hangers-on), have noticed that we are shipping a lot of goals. Now admittedly we've been following this teams fortunes for a long time and we can't solely blame Walker for the team's tendency to go asleep at the back. But what we can't forgive him for is trying to 'pull the wool' over our eyes and pretend that this manifested itself over this season. When Kenny Shiels left us we had one of best goalies in the league and along came Tommy Wright and the rot set in (Tommy's getting rid of Goosey is well documented). So it's been six years that our defence has been shipping goals and Tommy Wright couldn't fix that in his time (3 years) and so far Roy Walker can't fix it either.

We don't have a solution for the problem either but the panic buys at the deadline, Watson and Vauls are not the answer. Sky Blue Sport has been critical of Archie, but we saw on Saturday we were rather worse without him. Maybe Roy has to pick a settled defence, say, Kane, Rodgers, Archie and Vauls and play them for a match or two to see if they can get an understanding between them and the keeper. But he also needs to think with his head not his heart about the midfield. Kane was made the scapegoat on Saturday, but he had no cover in front of him, if we have to play Conor Downey, he's better inside, not on the wing. Up front we need a target-man, not someone who goes in half-heartedly like Elvis or wins one in ten headers like Baker. Surely there's someone in the first division we could get on-loan and ship Baker or Costello out to make room.

Of course Roy or his assistant(s) need to go see such a player, no use asking around, like we did with the last two goal-keeping flops, knowing our luck we could come up against someone who fits the bill tomorrow night at Bangor. Now for tomorrow night's game, we'll have to make one enforced change, due to Big Denver's sending off, but it should be a straight swap, bringing Archie back in . We see no great panic to change the team round, he could even pick the same starting 11, minus Denver, for at the end of the day we missed 3 sitters in the 2nd half, admittedly it would have been a travesty of justice if we had rescued a point, but what has justice to do with football. Hopefully Bangor won't pose the same problems as Portadown, but they won't be a pushover either, we're in for a battle, but we can win it and get into the next round, so come on Sky Blues, let's shag those Copeland islanders!

Betting Scam!

Just heard the England result, a draw and 'baldy' Rooney sent off and we got a tip today, purportedly from Baldy's dad, that the match would end in a draw, but he give us the wrong score, crafty Scouser! Now we've got a tip for you, United are going to beat Portadown tomorrow, by two clear goals, how do we know, we heard on the grapevine. Well it is the law of averages, we been crap at home in this the first round of matches and the law of averages says this is about to change and knowing our luck it will change tomorrow. In the next phase of the league, match 12 to 22, we have 4 games at home and 7 away. So the law of averages says we're going to win all our 4 home games and lose or draw all our 7 away games.

Now for tomorrow game, we don't have a clue to the manager's thinking, he surprised last Saturday, by leaving Watson on the bench (rumours that he was suffering flu symptoms persist) and dropping Sparky and playing the 'fat' Conor Downey. We know Downey is his man, but he surely needs a man with real stamina and Sparky fits into that mould very nicely. We have no time for favouritism, we need the best team on merit that we can find and Sparky, giving the long injury list that we have, is the best option and a man with real heart for the club. Elvis, seems destined to play a bit part at the club, one game in eight, seems to be the criteria, so Roy has to decide whether to leave him out or not. We think he'll persevere with him, he's not a good target man, but we haven't got anybody else.

With three ex-Portadown players in our ranks it's a safe bet they will get extra attention from the Ports fans, no doubt our fans will reciprocate on a certain Chris Ramsay, we hope as in the old saying, we are crowing at the end. Baker, has been quiet of late and we are sure he'll want to show Ronnie McFall and the Ports fans what they're missing and Ally, is due another match winning performance. But the one man who can really inflict the most damage is birthday boy, Cutch, what a 33rd birthday that would be if he was instrumental in helping United to a first home victory, over the man who released him over a year ago. So it's all set for a good match, United need to fear nothing, everybody is expecting us to lose, but we can win it, so come on Sky Blues, let's shag those apple pickers!