The most significant match so far in the Budweiser Superleague could be watched by one of Notre Dame's smallest home crowds of the season due to a clash with the televised World Cup soccer play-off second leg in Brussels tomorrow night.

The fixture between the joint leaders, Notre Dame and Star of the Sea, was due to be played in Belfast but the unavailability of the Maysfield Centre resulted in the switch to the National Arena in Tallaght.

Notre Dame's player-coach, Anthony Jenkins, is confident that the club's core support will turn out but he realises that the clash could result in a much reduced turn-out.

"It's bad timing and a shame that a match of this calibre should clash in this way with the soccer play-off," said Jenkins.

Star's coach, Danny Fulton, a PE teacher by vocation and a fan of many sports, also laments the clash with the match in Belgium. He was almost as concerned about discussing Mick McCarthy's persistence in ignoring the enduring talents of Paul McGrath than he was about the Notre Dame game.

Fulton, himself, has to plan without key bench player, Kevin Craig, who is unavailable. However, his impressive first five remains intact and he has players in form, like Gareth McGuire, Scottie Summersgill and Player of the Month, John Leahy.

The meeting of the big two should have a major bearing on the outcome of the campaign as these two clubs have already pulled away to a significant early four-point lead. Notre Dame and Star have won all of their five games to date and both have a plus points difference of at least 100, an average winning margin of a massive 20 points per game.

Both squads have strength in depth on the bench and, like Star, Notre Dame have players in form like Lennie McMillan (22 points per game) and new recruit Randall Mounts.

"It's going to be very difficult for us," Fulton admitted this week. "Player for player the squads match up really evenly," he concluded.

This is the third away game in-a-row for Star and their two recent wins over Marian in both cup and league have been very close affairs.

In contrast, Notre Dame have been blowing away their recent opponents by big margins, usually by turning on the pressure from the tip-off. "Against Dungannon last week, we really had the game won inside the first 10 minutes," commented Jenkins.

With that kind of form, Notre Dame will be marginally favoured to win but that will probably suit Fulton and company just fine.

The two teams clashed three times in pre-season tournaments and Star won two, although one of those winning margins was by just one point.

There was one significant player move this week with Killester signing new American rookie Ernest Jones to replace the injured Canadian Andy Wilmot. Wilmot's season came to an abrupt end last week when he ruptured an achilles tendon in the early stages of their game against Tralee.

The 6 feet 4 inch Jones is in the Killester squad for the game in Ballina tomorrow but the Dubliners will be missing five of their squad, including four junior internationals, who are involved in the under-19 Cup qualifying competition in Cork.

In other Superleague games tomorrow, Tralee are home to Marian while Neptune will be expected to pick up their first win of the season away to newly-promoted Dungannon. On Sunday, St Vincent's are home to St Paul's Killarney.

Just as the top two meet in the Superleague tomorrow, the first and second-placed clubs in Division One also meet. Sligo can take a major step towards promotion, and stretch their lead to four points, if they defeat Waterford at home.

In Cup matters, the Castleisland appeal against the result of their game against St Vincent's a fortnight ago will be considered, in full, by the NCC on Tuesday next.