By Steven Pyett
Westlands United will travel to Magill Park this Saturday to take on Steel United in a highly anticipated early season clash.
Last season these two sides were quite evenly matched with neither side gaining true dominance over the other.
Westlands this season have shown early signs that they will be around the mark in terms of ability and potential and with the exception of last weekend's 3-2 loss to Lions, Westlands have accounted for each side they have encountered with relative ease conceding few goals.
However the Reds have not faced Steel United yet.
Steel has not been too bad so far this season although up until last weekend they were without a win.
Each loss Steel has received has been by a small margin and if you had seen their performance against Wanderers last weekend you might get the impression that the Green team has a little more to prove as the season goes on.
Steel accounted for Wanderers 5-1 last Sunday and by all accounts Steel probably could have had more.
In saying this, it will be interesting to see if Steel will continue their good form this weekend and also to see if Westlands can bounce back from their first loss of the season.
For a win to occur, Steel will need all hands on deck as the greatly experienced backbone of the Steel United squad have the ability to give Westlands a headache they may not be able to handle.
Conversely, new players such as Eddie Wales are starting to find their feet with Wales netting a hat- trick last Sunday.
Steel United really excel at playing a direct game relying on big targets such as Darrin Veart and Thomas Jackson to provide a focal point whilst players such as Gerard Docherty seek to regularly provide accurate passes to feet or provide suitable balls for these forwards to flick on for their striking partner.
These types of plays are quite formidable and cannot be ignored.
Westlands will look to reinvigorate their dangerous midfield combination and also look to the forward pair to give a little bit more than what was observed last weekend against Lions.
Michael Harvey and Peter Rincon are fine young forwards and can readily create problems for opposition defenders but they will need to lift a little if they are to give the Reds that cutting edge up front this Saturday.
Regardless of how either side lines up this Saturday, I'm sure that this encounter between the two Uniteds will be an exciting affair and a crunch game for both sides.
See you there!