Cup Magic!

Tomorrow sees the start of the Irish cup for Premier league teams and as far as most Irish league fans are concerned, its the first round proper, the other rounds, were just preliminary rounds. The Sky Blues got a home draw, that's all you can hope for in knock-out competitions and they have been pitted against Amateur league side ,Crumlin Star, in a game that for the first time, will be played to a finish, with extra-time and penalties to decide the winner should they be needed.

Will that scenario influence our manager, Spike's, selection, making sure he has something left in reserve if the match should go to the dreaded penalty shoot-out. We think not and fully expect Spike, to start nearly the same X1, as he started last Saturday against Glenavon. We would caution him to play Sparky at least as his holding midfielder, but the man believes in his tactics and we fully expect him to start with what he sees as his strongest team.

Having come through a 90 minute work-out with the reserves last week, Cush and Jimer should be added to our bench and the release of Owen Kane, to Ballyclare Comrades, bears evidence to that fact, in our opinion. We don't know the first thing about Crumlin Star, but our Youth academy supremo, Joe McCall, has seen them in action and that's enough to fill us with trepidation on its own. We won't go into to Joe's shortcomings, we have done in the past, but people seem to forgive and forget, but not us.

There's a case for bringing Dwayne, back  at the expense of Addis, but we at 'Sport, think Glenn ,will stick with the ex-Linfield man in this instance. The weather forecast is for snow and followed by the heavy rain that's fallen today, the pitch should be heavy and Cookie, will probably partner JT at the heart of our defence. If Jimer is fully fit, there could be a case made for starting him at right-back or right-midfield, but we expect Spike will resist that temptation.

We expect a tough game, we never get an easy passage in these fixtures, but as long as we keep it  tight at the back, we should have too much fire-power in our front three, of Cutch, Darboy and our leading goalscorer, Tippers, to see off the Star. But they'll be some anxious moments you can bet but they'll stand us in good stead for the next round, or rounds, as the case may be. But if we want to be a force in the Premier league in this country, its time we started to act like one, so come Sky Blues, lets shag those Crumliners!