Impressive Sky Blues meeting each challenge head-on

SOMETIMES it takes someone else to describe it better than you ever could yourself...

Walking out of Stangmore Park on Friday night, two men in front of me were discussing the merits of Ballymena United’s 3-1 win over Dungannon Swifts.

“That was actually...easy,” mused one of the pair, with a slightly baffled expression on his face.

You could understand his bemusement – after all, the very mention of the name Stangmore Park would be enough to send a shiver up the spine of Ballymena fans given some of the nightmares they’ve endured at the Tyrone venue in recent seasons.

Not so on this occasion – this was as comfortable a win as you’ll ever see in the ultra-competitive Danske Bank Premiership.

Setting aside the result and the performance, perhaps the most pleasing aspect was Ballymena’s attitude towards the game.

It would have been excusable for United’s players’ heads to still be in the cloud after reaching the County Antrim Shield final in midweek; easy for them to think they had ‘arrived’; a case of ‘after the Lord Mayor’s Show’.

Instead, they took the game by the scruff of the net from the first minute and played the match at an intensity that Dungannon couldn’t match.

It’s easy to tell a team in good form and high in confidence against one struggling for form as Dungannon currently are – I’ve seen Ballymena fall into the latter category more times than I’d care to remember over the years.

So to see United ping the ball around with confidence, players always looking for the ball, free kicks and throw-ins taken with speed and purpose is very easy on the eye.

As manager Glenn Ferguson pointed out in his after-match press conference, it wasn’t as easy as the supporter had suggested – it was Ballymena’s performance and attitude that had made it look that way.

You get the impression from watching Ballymena at present that they’re a squad of players who know what their own individual roles are and who carry out those duties to the letter – rarely do you see two or more players looking at each other with an accusing ‘what were you doing there?’ expression.

It’s a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, testament once again to the work of Ferguson and his coaching staff in moulding together a squad of players which had failed so badly under the previous management team.

In the meantime, there’s plenty to look forward to for Ballymena fans in the coming weeks – and that in itself is something which hasn’t always been the case.

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