Clean Slate!

United, after their mauling at the hands of Linfield on Monday night, return to IPL action with a match against the 'Hatchet men'. This fixture is usually quite lively in itself for it usually brings out the best and the worst in the shore road men and in the Sky Blues. But it has added spice tomorrow in that former United striker, Gary McCutcheon, plays his first match at Warden Street, since he walked away at the end of last season. I'm sure he'll come in for a bit of extra attention from United players and supporters alike and we hope he's not too disappointed at the end of game. On second thoughts we hope he'll be distraught and have to suffer on the boat journey back getting slagged by his friend and ex-team-mate, Alan Jenkins. United manager Spike has some decisions to make as regards the make-up of his team. Our defence was a porous as a sieve on Monday night and we had no leaders on the field. Nobody was imploring people to get the finger out and we need somebody like that.

We at 'Sport think Spike will treat Monday night's reverse as a just a bad day at the office and not make wholesale changes. As intimated in Bruce Balmer' match report on Tuesday, we reckon Mike Ruddy will get the nod in place of Ross Black. We expect Cush to return at the expense of anyone from the three of Ally, Jamie and Jimmy Mac. Then there is a case for changing the midfield three or should we say the midfield two, for Gavin we feel sure will start, but as for Thommo and Alan D, we're not sure. But Spike being Spike, could say same again and give them another chance to redeem their collective selves. But it would be a huge risk to take and could spell disaster and undo all the promising work Spike and the boys have wrought up to now. The Crues for their part will want to try to dominate us and we need to be prepared for a barrage of high balls and for this reason we would like to see Sparky getting a start. The Broughshane man prowess in the air is well known and he would not let the side down.

We have lost our unbeaten run of games at home, but on the plus side, we have not lost a IPL game at home since February and if we could continue on in that vein, that would be a huge confidence boost for the next few games taking us up to the County Antrim Shield final at the end of this month. Spike is very much his own man and he has proved this by going out on the limb and continuing to play the likes of Tony Kane, Cookie and Ross Black and getting the best out of them. He surprised us all by dropping young Jamie at Dung and promoting young McCabe, it worked in that match but alas it didn't work against Linfield. Monday night's game is now history, it will go down on the record books as a defeat, whether we learn from this defeat remains to be seen. We have a chance to prove it was only a glitch, but it's not going to be easy, it never is against the Crues, but we need to get out there and do it, come on Sky Blues, let's shag those pet tigers!