Pivotal week ahead for United’s hopes of recovery

Sometimes, during a difficult situation, there comes a particular stage - a tipping point, as it were - where something happens which either resolves that situation or else makes it worse.
Ballymena United manager Glenn Ferguson and first team coach Lee Doherty face an important week this week.Ballymena United manager Glenn Ferguson and first team coach Lee Doherty face an important week this week.
Ballymena United manager Glenn Ferguson and first team coach Lee Doherty face an important week this week.

That time might well come this week for Ballymena United.

No matter how much you attempt to under-state the case, the events of the next five days will have a pivotal effect on what happens at the Showgrounds for the rest of the season.

A crucial League Cup tie against Ballinamallard - with knock-out competitions once again representing the best hope of success in the face of abject league form - followed by a ‘derby’ match against rivals Coleraine...weeks don’t really come much bigger than that.

Confidence is already low on the pitch - that much is evident in recent performances - but off the field, supporter confidence has reached as low a point as I can remember for some time.

The joy, excitement, interest and goodwill generated by the County Antrim Shield victory last season has long since evaporated on the back of what has been a rank rotten calendar year of 2013 so far.

There is already growing disenchantment among supporters at results, formations and performances and Friday night’s defeat at Ballinamallard did little to ease that.

One of the first things I do on arriving at any match is to get a copy of the Ballymena team sheet and have a look for changes from the previous game, and try to work out formations etc.

Two reads of the list on Friday night and I was none the wiser as I tried to equate the four strikers on the substitutes’ bench with the 11 names in the starting line-up. From speaking tofans at the game and after it, it seems I wasn’t alone.

The manager explained the reason for his selection - to get nippy, mobile players in and around Ballinamallard’s tall, physical defenders - in his post-match press conference.

It worked to an extent in that United’s build-up play was, as times, neat and easy on the eye but when it reached an area 25 yards from goal, it tended to splutter as much as the Ferney Park internet connection (I’m glad I put in my disclaimer at the end of last week’s column that I would have Twitter updates “gremlins permitting”!).

It was a flat game between two sides who look as if they will struggle in front of goal but United’s record of having lost already this season to would-be strugglers Ards, Warrenpoint and now Ballinamallard - with not a goal scored in any of those games - is a sorry statistic.

Progress in the League Cup and a long overdue win over Coleraine would at least provide a temporary respite for United even if some of the issues - not least the painfully obvious need for more quality in the side - can’t be addressed until January at the earliest and, more likely, next summer.

The flip side, of course, is that two defeats this week could push some supporters’ lack of confidence in the current set-up past the point of no return.

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