May 5th – Ulster Bank Leagues

Bank holiday Monday sees four Premier league fixtures.  Derriaghy will have their second home game of the weekend when Carrick come to Queensway. 
The two teams promoted from section 2 last season will do battle again at Belmont.  Cliftonville lost the league game at Belmont, but they were victors over CIYMS in the Ulster Shield final.  Both teams will see this as a chance to bank 4 valuable points. 
North Down will hope that home advantage will see them through in their game against Lisburn, in what could be a scintillating game.  The final game in the Premier league will see CSNI have home advantage against Waringstown.  Some people expect CSN to be pushing at the top this season, so this fixture will show us if they have the squad to do that. 

In section 2, the only game is the Downpatrick / Ballymena game.  Ballymena may well just decide to stay in Downpatrick after the Senior Cup game on Saturday and make a weekend of it, as they make the 100 mile round trip to Strangford Road on bank holiday Monday.  Some people see these two as possible promotion candidates, they may learn something about each other on the Saturday, but with the addition of the professional for the league, it will be interesting to see who wins this league encounter. 

Millpark will host the local derby when Donacloney visit in section 3.  The home team will miss Dave Cheater this season after his transfer to Waringstown, but both teams may see this as a chance to get all the points.  Both teams will have played 2nd XI teams in the junior cup on the Saturday, but both will have had hard games. 

So early in the season and, if the weather allows, after this weekend we can see where each team really is in the race of success in 2008.