Numbers game brings little pleasure for Sky Blues

I was anticipating that word would have got out about what has become known as ‘Ballymena United bingo’ – or put another way, what number of goals will the Sky Blues concede in any particular game?

It certainly must be world record material for a top-flight football team in any country to concede EVERY permutation of goals between zero and eight inclusive in different matches in the same season.

While conceding five, six and eight goals to Crusaders, Linfield and Cliftonville is in no way excusable, it might at least be deemed understandable given the quality of those three squads and their capability of steamrollering sides if they hit top form on any given day.

To ship seven to Glenavon – the only club who could realistically challenge Ballymena for the unwanted tag of biggest Irish League under-achievers of the past decade, and a team who still remain below United in the Danske Bank Premiership table – is a different matter entirely.

My attendance at a wedding thankfully meant I missed out on the Mourneview massacre, although I haven’t been spared the inevitable ‘humour’ of friends and work colleagues who follow other Irish League clubs (example: What’s the difference between Ballymena United and a taxi? A taxi only lets in five at a time, etc etc).

So it was with some trepidation that I resumed duties on Saturday for the home game against Donegal Celtic – a fixture which Ballymena have produced some particularly slapstick displays in recent seasons.

At 3.45pm, it was all looking pretty good. Memories of the mauling of seven days earlier were starting to slowly fade as Ballymena established a two-goal half-time lead with a functional, if unspectacular performance.

David Cushley showed a deftness of touch which sets him apart from many players in the league to score the first, while seeing Tony Kane line up a free kick within 30 yards of the opposing goal always brings the possibility of something to cheer.

It should have been game over but, perhaps indicative of the nervy nature of Ballymena’s recent run, you just got the impression that Ballymena needed to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and score a killer third goal.

It didn’t happen, and instead the Sky Blues spent most of the second half playing second fiddle to their relegation-threatened opponents, who deserved a point by the end, even if a stoppage time penalty was a cruel way for it to take place.

It takes Ballymena’s run of form to a paltry 10 points from a possible 45 from their last 15 league fixtures.

To put that into context, only bottom of the table Lisburn Distillery, with seven, have a worse return from that same period, while Donegal Celtic have managed 13 points in the same spell – four of them against Ballymena.

Saturday’s attendance illustrated graphically that the season is over for Ballymena in many people’s eyes – and with three more matches to come before the split and five ‘dead rubbers’ after it, it must be the earliest date that a season has been written off.

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