Managers’ delight as local sides reach Junior Shield final

With so much at stake at the semi-final stage, both Ballymena teams kept their composure to record convincing victories over Valley Rangers and Basement.

“I don’t think you can ever really expect to win a Junior Shield semi-final by four goals,” admitted Young.

“Valley maybe froze a wee bit on the big occasion and it was just destined to be our night.

“We could probably have won by more goals, especially when they went down to 10 men, but when you’re 4-0 up in a semi-final, you tend to concentrate more on holding on to what you have.

“The fact we already knew Homers were through the previous night didn’t put any extra pressure on us – I thought they would get through – we just concentrated on our own game.

“We have a big backlog of games to get cleared up between now and the Shield final so we’ll have to put it to the back of our minds for a few weeks.

“I know that maybe won’t be an easy thing but for now, league and cup games will have to come first for us,” added Young.

Homers boss Jordan was also pleased to reach the showpiece decider, after watching his side come out on top in a feisty encounter which saw three red cards.

“We have played better of many occasions this season but we did enough to get the result and in the semi-final of any competition that is the main thing.

“There were certainly a few nerves and it took us a wee while to settle but when we got the first goal, we were able to get the ball down and play a bit.

“There were a few twists and turns in the game – particularly when we went down to 10 men and they equalised from the resulting free kick – but we responded and got two goals from two good passages of play.

“Their tempers got a wee bit frayed towards the end but we kept our composure and I couldn’t have asked anything more from the boys in terms of effort or commitment,” added Jordan.

* Don’t miss our two-page Junior Shield and Saturday Morning League spread in this week’s Ballymena Times.