Waterside bragging rights at stake in final

Institute's Robbie Hume returns to the squad after missing the last few weeks because of an injury.

The Waterside derby is sure to attract a large crowd and for United boss Gary Simpson he’s hoping his side can avenge their Craig Memroial Cup defeat, which they suffered at the Riverside Stadium recently.

“We know that we’ll have a big support out at ’Stute and they will back us throughout, but I want them to be cheering at the end,” stated Simpson.

“What disappointed me in our recent match against ’Stute was that we gave the ball away too much and when you do that against a team of ’Stute’s capabilities then you know you aren’t going to get the ball back for a while, so hopefully we have learned from that and we’ll be better in possession.

“Because of that we know what type of task we are up against and like that night I feel ’Stute again will respect us and again field a strong next week.”

Simpson wants his players to go and continue to create more history for Newbuildings.

“This will be Newbuildings’ first time ever in a North West Senior Cup Final, so that’s more history, but I have told the players like any final there is no point getting into it unless you are holding the cup aloft at the end,” he added.

“We aren’t going out to Drumahoe to just make up the numbers or anything like that, we are going there to try and win.”

United face Groomsport on Saturday in the Intermediate Cup and while Simpson wants to win at the weekend he admits he’ll have one eye on next week’s cup final when selecting his team.

“I have a 19 man squad and hopefully we don’t pick up any injuries in the Groomsport match, I’ll have a fully fit squad to choose from, apart from Peter Blair and Dean Curry who are both struggling with long term injuries.

“The Intermediate Cup is something we have done well in recent years and I would like to do well again this year, so I’ll be fielding a strong side against Groomsport.”

As for Paul Kee he knows his players will need to be fully focused right from the off: “The players are well aware of what Newbuildings are going to be all about, because in fairness to them they did very well in the Craig Memorial Cup tie recently,” conceded the ’Stute boss. “We won the NW Senior Cup a couple of years ago, so it would be nice to win it back again, but we have to give a good account of ourselves.”