Burns Night!

Burns Night may seem a daft headline as United (the holders), go to Seaview to play Crusaders, the challengers tomorrow night in the semi-final of the County Antrim Shield. Linfield are already through to the final and the incentive is there for United to join them in a repeat of last season's final, where we triumphed in a dramatic penalty shoot-out. To this end we need a strong referee, not like that 'namby pamby' who we had on Saturday, but a good ref who believes in fair play and we think we've got one in Colin Burns. If Burns has a good match, then football is the winner and we have loads of it to spare.

Due to suspensions we must do without Mario and Tony Kane and it will be interesting to see who Spike will select to fill Tony's place. On Saturday he brought Archie on to replace Steely. Are we to read anything in to that or was he just wanting Archie to get some playing time before tomorrow night game. Marky, who has been JT's partner from our second match of the season, ironically on our last visit to the Hatchet men, is a rightback by trade so to speak and he is the obvious choice and Spike could start either Archie or Cookie alongside JT. Decisions, decisions, who would want to be a manager, when so much hangs on your deliberations.

Crues manager, Stephen Baxter, was trying to use bluffing tactics today, saying he's treating this match seriously, but reading between lines, we think he'll be playing some fringe players, but he's sure to have his bench packed with his elite. If, he does include fringe players, it will be up to our players to get at them from the start, for we know from painful experience its hard to turn a match round when you've been beaten to the punch. To this end Captain Jenks and Thommo need to up their game for last Saturday they were found wanting and the same goes for Ally, he needs to start taking chances rather than missing them.

We fully expect Liggie and MM to be retained upfront and where better to cement their budding partnership than at Seaview tomorrow night. We wouldn't be surprised to see Spike go back to his favoured 4,3,3 system, but we think that would leave either Liggie or MM on the bench and the inclusion of Sparky or Archie in midfield. Reserve keeper, Stuart Addis, looks set to deputise for the injured Dwayne, who got no protection from Matthew Tipton's studs or from ref Andy Hunter on Saturday, who stood idly by and watched him get mugged. At the time of writing this, we aren't still sure of the extent of Dwayne's injuries, but we hope it's not too serious and wish him a speedy recovery.

Then there is our talisman, Cush, he has a big part to play and he can be our match winner tomorrow night for sure. He is struggling for fitness, but he usually rises to the big occasions and we expect no less of him tomorrow night. If we had more players with the enthusiasm of the Cush, we know we wouldn't be in the lower reaches of the Premier league, but fighting at the top. Will Spike be telling our players and Cush to shoot on site, we hope so, for its the only way we're going to progress to the final of this competition and beat Linfield again and keep the Shield for another season. So come on Sky Blues, let's shag those paper tigers!

Blue War!

They'll be a war of the Blues tomorrow at the Warden Street Showgrounds, when the Sky Blues of United take on the dark Blues of Linfield. This war will start when Referee Andy Hunter blows his whistle after we have all observed a minute's silence for the untimely death of Lesley Scates (as the result of a car accident last week), Lesley is the wife of a former player of both clubs and now the manager of Bangor, Gareth Scates. We expect the fans of both clubs to observe this silent tribute and spare a thought for Scatesy and his family at this time of tragedy.

Then we expect a game of football, a good clean game of football, with no quarter asked or given and definitely no diving and trying to con the ref. The pitch will no doubt be somewhat heavy, considering all the rain we have had over the past few days, but we'd expect it not to cut up too much, as long there's been no stock cars over it since our last match on it, against the Coleraine scum. With the breaking news of Johnny Taylor signing a 2 year extension to his contract, United should be up for this one and lets hope we get a good game. Johnny and Mario missed our victory at Stangmore Park last Saturday through suspension and although Mario could have to be content with a place on the bench, we expect JT to take his usual place in the centre of our defence.

Its not known if Mike Ruddy has shaken off his injury and we would expect Steely to continue at leftback in his place, but our manager could have other ideas. If Spike continues with his new found policy,4,4,2, we'd expect a midfield of Thommo, Jenks, Ally and Cush or maybe Robbo if Cush fails to make it. That leaves MM and Liggie to continue in trying to form a striking partnership and boy do we need them to succeed in that. Its too soon to claim that we have stopped conceding stupid goals, but we need to concentrate on scoring them at the other end, for we have an abysmal goals for record. Only two teams in the Dankse Premier league, have scored fewer goals than us, the 'Point and the Ducks and that makes for depressing reading.

Linfield, as league leaders, should bring a large crowd with them, but such is the malaise in local football now, we may have as many fans as them tomorrow, that is if our fickle fans can drag themselves away from their armchairs or shopping with the wife/partner. We can't guarantee them a victory, nobody can, but we certainly need their backing if we want to get anything out this game and a victory would set us up nicely for the County Antrim Shield semi-final at Seaview against the Crues on Wednesday next. Tomorrow starts a round of matches which will make or break our season, Linfield (H), Crues (A), Glens (H), Chickenville (A) and Ports (H). Nobody is going to do us any favours, we got to dig in and when better to start than tomorrow, come on Sky Blues, lets shag those Townies!

Chicken Wings!

United go into tomorrow's match away to the Dungannon Swifts on a high after coming from 2-0 down against the Coleraine scum and getting a deserved draw. In truth we never looked like winning it and we were just holding on in the last few minutes and more so when Mario got himself sent off with a stupid elbow in full view of the linesman on a scum player. We haven't heard our management team come out and say he put our team in jeopardy with his foolish elbow, so we must think they didn't attach any importance to that incident. We at 'Sport thought Spike or a member of our management team would be slamming Mario for this act of gross stupidity, but so far the silence is deafening.

Spike tried to play down the injuries sustained by Cush and Mike Ruddy, who both must be rated as very doubtful for tomorrow's match, leaving Spike with a bigger headache than he has already, with 3 first teamers suspended, Johnny and Gavin as well as Mario. Liggie looks set to replace Mario and as Omar said in his column last night, he has to step up the plate sometime and we fervently hope its tomorrow. If Fergie goes with 4,4,2 then he has to start Robbo, Jenks, Thommo and either Ally or Cush in midfield, but we won't be surprised if Alan D makes an appearance at the expense of Liggie or MM, but we hope not.

If by some miracle Ruddy is fit to start, it should release Archie to partner Marky in central defence, but Spike may prefer Cookie Munster instead and leave Archie on the subs bench as cover. In our opinion it'll be a grave risk playing either Ruddy or Cush tomorrow for we'll need their services in the five matches after tomorrow, when we play the four city clubs and Ports in a month before we get an easy home game against Ards, lol. But Spike may decide its a risk worth taking and if it pays off, he may stave off the vultures gathering to see when he's going to have to walk the plank, it must be getting close.

Omar says when he used to pluck chickens in his youth, the wings were discarded, but then along came the Chinese and showed us how to get better value from our chickens, hence the title of our post this week. Our manager has to be like the Chinese and extract the full potential from our side if we are gain maximum points tomorrow at Stangmore Park, in short, he has to use the full chicken. Its not without irony that we are playing a team supported by fans which owe their livelihood to the chicken industry and we thought it was a worthwhile analogy. So come on Sky Blues, let's shag those chicken farmers and clip their chicken wings!

Windy Lambs!

United go into this derby game against the Coleraine scum on the back of a great victory on Tuesday night over Ballinmallard, by three goals to nil. But it will all count for nothing when referee Tim Marshall blows his whistle at 3 o'clock tomorrow afternoon, to start this Dankse Premiership game, it is in football parlance, a different ballgame. For a start it is a fixture we haven't won for eleven games now and we are hoping fervently we will succeed tomorrow and lay the bogey to rest. Lady luck, we believe is on our side, we have already laid two boogies to rest this season, namely beating the Crues at Seaview and beating Dungannon Swift at Warden Street, so we go into the match with confidence that we can extract some revenge for the hurt we have we have suffered in the last 4 years.

The scum will feature two ex-United players namely Stephen Lowry and keeper Wayne Drummond and if that isn't enough to get fans shouting abuse, their manager is an ex-United player, so you see we have a lot to get our dander up about and we will be singing the 'old songs' like 'four twenty blackbirds', 'you're scum and you know you are' and 'if you canny do the bouncy yeur Coleraine'. By all accounts we will have a new song to sing, but we prefer the old songs and we will reserve judgement on 'have you ever wondered why' until we have heard it a few times. Sky Blue fans will be able to take advantage of a new initiative started by three enterprising fans and it will be available in the concourse behind the Slemish stand tomorrow. Details can be found in the press, but it should raise at least £1,000 for club funds, well done to those three individuals.

What of team news, well we hate to tell you this....we haven't got a baldy. We haven't been able to assess our own official web site for fecks sake. Whether this is a computer glitch or just plain incompetence on our part, remains to be seen, but we haven't heard anything about injuries. Nothing new in that, we didn't even know our manager had got a touchline ban until after Tuesday's match FFS and what way is that to run a club. We understand our manager doesn't want to give the opposition a 'heads-up' about possible team selection, but maybe they can give us a wee inkling, like saying somebody is carrying an injury but should be fit and then if he doesn't make the starting panel, we won't be totally shocked, surely that's not too much to ask. Cush is not 100% fit, but he continues to play and give his all and we hope he is in our starting line-up tomorrow.

If it was our choice we would give the players who started on Tuesday a vote of confidence, but Glenn and three baldies will have their own ideas about who should start against the scum. Johnny and Marky have seeming the central defenders position nailed down and the same applies for Ruddy and Tony, our two fullbacks. If Thommo, Archie and Captain Jenks, came through unscathed on Tuesday, we'd expect them to get the vote, that only leaves the striker's role to be sorted out. We can't believe that Liggie is willing to play a 'bit part', but if Mario and MM are both fit, we can't see Glenn dropping them in favour of Liggie, but what do we know. Whoever gets the nod tomorrow has a chance to make history, ending the most consecutive losing streak against the scum, that any of 'us' can remember. We know its not going be to easy, it never is against them, but we owe them 'big' time, so come on Sky Blues, let's shag those Lambs from Windy Hall!

Waiting Game!

The Sky Blue supporters are playing a waiting game to see what players Spike selects for tomorrow night game against the Ducks in the league cup. He actually tried to justify his bizarre decision to leave his 3 strikers on the bench and play with two wingers and a midfielder who's struggling for form, in an interview with Stephen Alexander of the Ballymena Times. We at 'Sport felt sure he must have picked the players with a blindfold and pin, so strange was the line-up, but we are relieved to hear that's all part of the Spike master-plan. That's a relief we can tell you, for a moment there we were of the opinion that he had lost it and was getting prepared to leave for pastures new.

We wonder who he's going to select for tomorrow night's encounter, will it be recognised first-teamers or will he pick fringe players like he has done in our previous knock-out games this season? Anybody's guess if you asked us, just when we think we know Glenn's thinking, he'll surprise us by picking a rookie like he did on Friday night. One things for certain, we have got to change our game plan for tomorrow night's encounter for Friday night's plan didn't work and it certainly won't work tomorrow either. Surely we have got to take the game to the Ducks, never mind their big central defenders, we have got to play our strikers and we have got to get in among them in midfield.

We only ask that the team has a go, if we try and fail that would be acceptable, but not to try, that's a disgrace. Neal Lowry is the only player we have that has real pace and we have got to play him from the start and try to give ourselves the edge, like Liggie, Mario and MM, he's no use sitting on the bench, better on the pitch. Johnny Taylor picked up another booking in last Friday night's encounter and must be nearing suspension, but he will be available for selection in our next 2 games and we'll need him to be at his best. It's 'ham shank' Courtney, who is refereeing tomorrow night's encounter and we can't expect any favours from him, but come on Sky Blues, let's shag those Ducks!