Lisburn target three quick wins

Strangely, the fixture book has thrown up these two teams against each other twice in the league in this early part of the season, a situation compounded by the fact they have drawn each other in the cup. The two sides will know each other very well after the month of May.

Lisburn will be buoyed by the news professional Yasas Tillakaratne's visa problems have been resolved and there is a good chance he will be in Lisburn in time to take part in the match. He will bolster the team both batting and bowling and with Greg Thompson's men having posted over 200 last weekend, the green shoots of recovery are plain to see at Wallace Park.

"It is good to hear that Yasas will be here soon, both from a playing, and more importantly, from a coaching perspective," said Thompson. "We played reasonably well last week against Limavady. Our batting shows signs that the rust is now off, our bowling wasn't too bad, but our fielding, and catching in particular, let us down, and we have worked hard on that discipline this week.

"We now have a very important few weeks ahead of us and the target is for at least three wins. We have beaten Downpatrick once and if we play near our best we should repeat the dose, both this week in the league and next week in the cup. That would give us confidence for the Club Turf game and the league game against Ballymena at the end of the month." The action beins on Saturday at 1pm. The Seconds play on Sunday, enjoying their first home game against Muckamore and the Thirds are in cup action at Friends School on Saturday.