Dungannon match boycott plan gathers pace

The action, which was first revealed by Times Sport recently, is a spill-over from the recent row in which the Showgrounds club was fined 1,250 by the Irish Football Association after having been found to have racially abused Dungannon goalkeeper Alvin Rouse during a match in August.

Ballymena and its supporters have consistently denied any wrongdoing but their appeal was dismissed by the IFA, causing widespread condemnation among the football fraternity in this country.

While their main anger is directed at the IFA, Ballymena supporters also feel that Dungannon could have done more to prevent the situation escalating to the extent it did, given that Swifts made no complaint at the time about the alleged comments, which were erroneously misheard and misinterpreted by the match delegate and referee.

The supporters' stance has been backed by the club and it is understood that United officials will not be in attendance at the Stangmore Park fixture on February 23.

Instead, Ballymena are hoping to arrange a reserve team match at the Showgrounds for that night, with supporters planning to attend there instead and also making a voluntary donation of around 15 – the cost of their travel and admission to the Dungannon match – towards paying off the fine.

A spokesman for the supporters said: "Naturally, nobody will be forced to boycott the game in Dungannon, nor pressurised to donate money to the club, but we would urge all those who were in attendance that day, and have thus been labelled as "racist" to give some serious thought to this idea."

The club's largest fan grouping – the Seven Towers Supporters' Club – has already announced it will not be providing transport to the match.

"No-one will be ostracised if they decided to go to Dungannon under their own steam to watch their team, but we're hopeful that our supporters will stand together on this because it has been deeply distressing and hurtful to us to have been wrongfully branded racist," the spokesman added.

Meanwhile, back on matters on the pitch, United boss Roy Walker is hoping for a positive response to Saturday's 3-0 reverse when United travel to rivals Coleraine tonight (Tuesday, 7.45pm) – the match having initially been postponed from Boxing Day due to a frozen pitch.

"We need to pick it up for Coleraine," said Walker.

"If we can't get up for a 'derby' match, there's something wrong. I just hope it means as much to the players as it does to the fans.

"We have to look at what we did wrong at the Oval and see where we can improve."

Walker awaits fitness checks on defender Albert Watson (concussion) and midfielder Darren Lockhart and Aidan Watson (dead leg) who all came off during Saturday's defeat.

After the Coleraine game, United are at home to Glenavon this Saturday (3pm).