Stalemate a familiar outcome in Swifts fixture

That idea was quickly knocked on the head, however, as I figured there wouldn’t be any readers old enough to remember such an occurrence.

There are certain fixtures in the season’s schedule which create a buzz of anticipation and others you could see far enough.

Ballymena matches against Dungannon, particularly at the Showgrounds for some reason, certainly fall into the latter category.

Both teams just seem to nullify each other and any passages of good quality play are very much in the minority but at least Saturday’s encounter didn’t have the undercurrent of nastiness which has dogged the fixture in recent years.

When all is said and done, however, the outcome had an all-too-familiar feel to it.

To concede an equaliser in stoppage time is a sickener at any time, even more so when it has taken 83 minutes to get your noses in front in the first place.

David Cushley at last saw his work-rate rewarded with a typically opportunistic goal but the manner in which Ballymena conceded the equaliser, from a bread and butter free kick lumped into the penalty area, wasn’t top-flight material.

It was the sort of game where the workhorses, rather than the thoroughbreds, caught the eye but for all Ballymena’s efficiency, the lack of genuine quality at the ‘business end’ of the pitch has seen Ballymena fritter away four points which would have seen them sitting top of the Danske Bank Premiership table.

That in itself would have set up the mother of all derbies as Ballymena and Coleraine lock horns for the first time this season this weekend.

The first thing that Ballymena supporters will demand is that their side actually competes with the Bannsiders, who continue to make excellent progress under Oran Kearney.

If last season was littered with disappointments throughout the campaign, then the three matches against Coleraine were barrel-scraping material.

The 5-1 home defeat still ranks as one of the top five worst Ballymena performances I’ve witnessed in many years of watching Ballymena; the first meeting at Ballycastle Road almost saw United steal an undeserved point before a last minute goalkeeping error, while the Boxing Day clash was another non-event as far as Ballymena were concerned.

There are parallels in the revival of both rival clubs’ fortunes under the management of two of the Irish League’s ‘bright young things’ in Glenn Ferguson and Oran Kearney.

Coleraine, by virtue of a longer time in charge for Kearney, are slightly ahead but Ballymena can take a big step towards closing the gap this weekend.

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