Good Friday Feast

It's a feast of good sport over the next 4 days as the Easter programme kicks off on Good Friday with football, Rugby Union and Rugby League games. Cambridge United entertain another team looking for promotion when York City come to the Abbey Stadium on Friday night. They come into the game buoyed by the fact that not only have the manager and assistant manager signed new contracts, but key players Richie Hanlon and Jon Brady have also put pen to paper. I hope that they will be in the mood to celebrate and that some of our other key players will soon be signing. The bad news is that Matt Bloomer, who has played in just about every defensive position, has been recalled by Lincoln. It will be interesting to see who the manager elects to play at centre back, or whether he will go to a three at the back option.

The other added pressure is that this will be the third time this season that we have tried to win three games on the bounce. This has not been achieved for nearly eight years and to get that monkey off our back will mean that we have made huge strides this season. York will come into the game looking for three points and are another team for whom a draw is not good enough. This will hopefully play into our hands and we will be able to catch them on the break. If we can continue where we left off in the Aldershot game then there is a very good chance we will win this.

Rugby League

In Rugby League, Warrington get the chance to avenge their opening day defeat to Salford Reds and should be boosted by last weeks tough win over the Bulls. The coach has named an unchanged line up and will demand that his team put Salford under the same kind of pressure that they put Bradford under last week. Keep it simple and the turn the pressure on when you get the opportunities. They will not be getting the same lenient referee as last week, so will need to make sure that they keep it disciplined from the start and play out their sets of six. Salford currently sit on the top three so a win here will help the Wolves to bridge the gap to the top, not only against Salford, but with Leeds and Bradford playing tonight a win could see them back on the road to a top four finish

Rugby Union

The Northampton Saints will play their biggest game of the season when they take on Leicester in a local derby. The Saints have been in good form of late, and will need to be at their very best to get even one bonus point out of this game. A five point win, though unlikely, will actually put them level on points with Leicester. Now that they know that finishing fifth will give them a place in next years Heineken Cup, it will be interesting to see the tactics that they adopt. Carlos Spencer will need to be on top of his game and the Saints will need to make sure that they take every opportunity that is put in front of them. They know that Leicester will be without Harry Ellis and should put pressure on whoever fills in at scrum half. If they fail to win there will be a lot of Saints fans cheering on Bath in the HC as if they win their next game finishing 6th should see them qualify as well. As good as they can be I still think the Tigers will nick this by 5 points