Shore Up!

What can we say, we leave for our winter break to the sun and United collapse and undo all the work they previously done, in one fell swoop. We gather it wasn't a pleasant watch last Saturday and for the second time this year, we were undone by a corner, given by the referee, that wasn't a corner and then the smelly stuff hit the fan. Rusty Ray informed us that Tippers should have had a hat-trick in the first-half and we had several other chances.

But its goals that count, on the plus side we only lost 3 points and we think we managed not to pick up any other injuries, which always will be a plus for a team decimated with injuries. Still we haven't a clue who Spike will opt to stand in for the suspended Cookie. Will it be Marky, or does he drop Captain Jenks back or try Mike Ruddy again, as he has done before. The one thing's for sure, he can't afford to let Linfield pick holes in our defence like Chickenville did last week.

The IFA team are not firing on all cylinders, but they're still grinding out results and they are firmly entrenched in the top six, so they'll not be a pushover by any means. But United have to bounce back after last Saturday's collapse and they'll never be a better time to do it. Linfield are not the invincible team they were, but they still manage to ground out wins against us and they'll no doubt be looking for the same result tomorrow.

But we must put our last mishap behind us and the players owe us a favour and we at 'Sport hope to see every player trying his eye-strings out. Then and then, could we hope to gain anything from this difficult game. Its two and half years since we beat Linfield in the league, in the first game of the 2012 season, with two Jamie Davidson goals, it would be nice to repeat the dose. But Jamie is no longer available, so somebody else will have to step up to the plate.

Who will it be we wonder, we cannot see Spike starting Matty Shevlin, who was an unused sub last week, but what other secret weapon have we got in our panel. With the all the will in the world we cannot see Tippers or Darboy rise to the occasion, but who knows? We don't know and we don't care who it is, but we need him/them really badly. Maybe it will be our manager's boy, now wouldn't that be a turn up for the books, so come on Sky Blues, let's shag those Belfast sheep!