Opinion: Players’ milestones underline Ferguson’s rebuilding work

Unsurprisingly, there was warm applause for Aaron Stewart as he received a memento marking his 200th appearance for the club recently. Likewise with Allan Jenkins, Tony Kane and Alan Teggart, who all passed the 100-game mark.

The fact that four players notched personal milestones is further evidence of how Glenn Ferguson’s painstaking building process at the Showgrounds is taking shape.

It’s interesting to note that the four players were all signed by Roy Walker and had a number of appearances under their belts before Ferguson took over.

The fact that Ferguson himself has yet to reach 100 games in charge of Ballymena shows that his career, in football management terms at least, is still in its relative infancy.

The underlying point is that only now, nearly two-and-a-half years into his tenure, is the manager beginning to see progress in terms of getting players in that he wants and results on the pitch with, hopefully, a top six league placing to show for it.

It’s the very thing that so many of these foreign owners of clubs fail to acknowledge - that to build an improving and ultimately successful team is a process that requires time and patience. Instead, even if a new manager comes in midway through the season, if he hasn’t turned it around inside about six weeks, his neck is on the chopping block as well. What a nonsense.

To reach 200 games for a middle-of-the-road club like Ballymena is not an insignificant achievement because, unlike players at the likes of Cliftonville and Linfield, there aren’t always the additional appearances that regular lengthy cup runs, European games and Setanta Cup fixtures bring.

Some long-serving Irish League players might chalk up as many European and Setanta appearances throughout their career as it would take for a player at Ballymena to play a full season of domestic games!

When you look at the astronomical number of games the likes of Noel Bailie and Colin Nixon played in their careers, it puts the Ballymena record of 436, held by Mark Carlisle, into some context!

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