David Jeffrey highlights high cost behind Ballymena United defeat

Having kicked off the week bolstered by an eight-game Danske Bank Premiership unbeaten run, Ballymena closed it with a second defeat inside four days.

The focus of Jeffrey’s Mourneview Park misery was on injury issues and penalty pain.

“For the penalty decision (to make it 2-0), I can understand Gary Hamilton’s frustration at times (with decisions) and I was the frustrated manager today,” said Jeffrey. “From speaking to Ross Redman, the ball came off his stomach at pace and hit his hand.

“We are not saying it didn’t hit his hand, we’re not disputing that in any way, but the fact it hit his stomach first then his hand makes it most disappointing.

“I would hope, for the good of the game, there would be some room for common sense.

“We had a mountain to climb and to lose Jude Winchester (to injury) was obviously a loss.

“Prior to the game we had Leroy Millar out and the team that went on such a consistent run for a period didn’t have any injuries.

“Now today we picked up injuries to Jude and Kofi Balmer.”

Jeffrey’s sense of frustration did not extend beyond the statistics.

“We scored a goal in the dying embers but I’m disappointed with the result but not with the players,” said Jeffrey. “There were very valid reasons.

“We went to Carrick Rangers and were fantastic...against Dungannon, on the night, possession-wise, passing-wise and opportunity-wise we had four great chances and Roy Carroll made a wonder save, plus we should have had a penalty.

“You need that bit of good fortune to win games, it’s fine lines...we didn’t get that little bit on Tuesday against Dungannon and today we had absolutely none.

“We started brightly and were very good over the first 15 minutes, to be honest, I thought Glenavon scored against the run of play.

“In the second half, we dominated possession but, being fair, we didn’t overly work the Glenavon goalkeeper.

“I felt the penalty decision did go against us and coupled with losing the two boys to injuries, made it a very hard day for us.”

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