Has United’s season really been THAT bad?

SOMETIMES a wee bit of perspective goes a long way.
Ballymena United FC.Ballymena United FC.
Ballymena United FC.

As the curtain begins to fall on Ballymena United’s season, it’s worth putting the events of the last few months into some sort of context.

I’ve heard supporters, including some long-standing ones, decry the current side as “the worst Ballymena team I’ve ever seen”, particularly during that depressing period where Ballymena amassed just 12 points from a run of 19 league games.

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True, I’ve never seen a Ballymena team suffer so many heavy defeats in one season, but “worst Ballymena team ever”? Do me a favour.

Those same fans must have forgotten about the Tommy Jackson and Nigel Best eras, to name but two, the very mention of which still cause me to want to lie down in a darkened room.

Let’s look at how Ballymena’s exploits have matched up with pre-season expectations.

The first key area is in terms of silverware won. Well, that one has certainly surpassed any of the 23 years which went before it.

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If we’re being honest about it, winning a trophy – even if it was the fourth most important of the four senior trophies available – was beyond the hopes of dreams of most fans this season.

The other essential criterion in assessing a season is league position.

That one is still to be determined but it’s going to be somewhere around the same position and a similar points total to last season, although last season’s points haul can still be overtaken with wins from the last three games, while two wins and a draw will see the Sky Blues finish with the same 50-point total as last year.

While there’s frustration that United haven’t pushed on, particularly after the encouraging first three or four months, the reality is that the current panel of players was always likely to produce a mid-table finish.

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So in what has been written off in a desperately poor season by some people, Ballymena have managed to exceed expectations in terms of trophy wins and match expectations in terms of league position.

I wonder if fans of Portadown – who will finish the season trophyless and having seen their league position drop from runners-up last season to bottom six this term – settle for such a mediocre season as Ballymena have had?

Or Glenavon, who, like Ballymena, will finish in the bottom half for a fifth successive year, beset by financial problems?

But the most interesting stat of all could come on Irish Cup final day, May 4.

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Unless Glentoran can halt the Cliftonville juggernaut and prevent the Reds from completing a domestic ‘treble’, the record books will show that outside of the all-conquering Solitude side, Ballymena would be the only other club to win a senior trophy this season.

That’s not a bad return for such a “terrible” season, eh?

* Follow Ballymena Times Sports Editor Stephen Alexander on Twitter (@Stephen_Bmena)