Andrews calls for big finish to AIL campaign

As the last block of four matches in AIB All-Ireland League Division One resumes this Saturday, the Braidmen appear to be resigned to a mid-table finish, being too far off the pace for promotion but having a comfortable seven point margin above the first of the two relegation places.

"We've spent the last couple of months really talking about relegation – now we're trying to say 'let's really see what we can do between now and the end of the season'," Andrews told Times Sport.

"There's a healthy cushion between us and the teams below us but all it takes is for us to lose a couple and one of the other teams to come with a run of form.

"Ballymena have been involved in relegation scraps right up to the death in the past few seasons and hopefully it won't come right down to the wire again this season.

"We have Young Muster at home this Saturday and although they are on a great run of seven games unbeaten, we feel we could and should have beaten them down there.

"Inconsistency would sum up our AIL campaign as a record of five wins and five defeats from 10 games would suggest, but in the last few games, we have been developing a style of play that suits the set-up of our squad. It's a more conservative style than I would be used to coaching but it has proved to be pretty good for us.

"We started off the campaign like a steam train but then we seemed to lose our way a wee bit and we had injuries in the half-back positions but we took a lot of heart from our AIL Cup run and even our performance in losing against Cork Constitution in the semi-final."

As well as the AIL, Ballymena's domestic programme still has plenty of mileage in it, with several matches to be rescheduled in the Ulster Senior League, as well as the Senior Cup campaign, which will begin with a home game against Belfast Harlequins next Saturday.

"The Ulster League tends to be won by one of four clubs and it's usually a case of who loses the least matches. We've lost two games out of six already so we're depending on other team taking points off the leaders so it's pretty much out of our hands.

"One of those defeats was against Harlequins, when we were well beaten up there in our worst performance of the season so we will have to up our game in the Senior Cup match against them.

"If you are going to win the trophy, you have to beat some of the better sides somewhere along the way so hopefully a match on our home turf will give us a good chance of that," added John.