Blunted Hatchets!

United go into their penultimate game pre-split against Crusaders at Seaview tomorrow and have nothing to fear against the hatchet-men, as United have already beaten them twice in the league this season. This will be in fact the fifth meeting between the two sides this season and United deserved to only lose one, the County Antrim Shield semi-final, where we didn't turn-up. The other game we lost was in the league cup and United lost 4-3 after extra-time and were denied a stonewall penalty at the death, by referee Colin Burns. By an ironic twist of fate we have another controversial official taking charge of tomorrow's game, Richard Crangle, but we know from experience we get nothing when playing city teams.

So it'll be up to Glenn and the three baldies to come up with a plan to send Mister Ugly home to his missus with a frown and no points. There could be three or four former United players in the Crues line-up tomorrow, but we are better off without them and anyway they all went of their own free will, we didn't force them out. Spike has hinted at changes, but we at 'Sport would be surprised to see wholesale changes, but with a full panel to pick from, Spike may shake things up a bit. We won't be surprised if Cookie is rested and Marky gets the nod alongside JT and maybe Thommo will get a start at the expense of Alan D. Will Spike unleash his secret weapon, Mark Kelly, on the unsuspecting Crues defence or will he stick with Darboy?

These are questions that only Glenn can answer and we have learnt from experience that its a useless exercise, trying to second guess him. Just when you think you have him figured out, he springs a surprise on you, like he did last Friday night, in omitting Kelly and Sparky from his subs bench. Oh how United could done with Sparky's battling in midfield and Kelly's presence up front, where the Glentoran defenders were hardly troubled. Glenn is still relatively new to football management and we think he was carried away with all the hype about the Glens picking a weak side and he gave a few players the night off and it came back to bite him. We hope he picks his strongest team tomorrow, come on Sky Blues, lets shag those paper Tigers!