Defeat was hard to take for Ballymena United

After edging out Coleraine on penalties in last Monday’s semi-final the Sky Blues produced an excellent performance against the Glens.

They had arguably the better of things up until Paul O’Neill’s opener, and they bounced back in style thanks to Cathair Friel’s leveller at the start of the second half.

Both teams pressed for a winner but in the end if was Mick McDermott’s side who triumphed as they with their late sucker punch.

“I thought we played tremendously well in the final against Glentoran,” said Ballymena United boss Dacid Jeffrey.

“The level of our performance really pleased me.

“It was on coincidence that every Glentoran player congratulated us on our display at the finish, while their manager Michael McDermott was magnanimous in victory. He complimented us on how well we played.

“So when you have that level of respect and feedback, it was very pleasing and encouraging.

“Prior to the semi-finals, all three teams, Glentoran, Cliftonville and Coleraine wanted to play us because they thought that was their route to the final.

“Against Coleraine, we never played anywhere near the levels expected, but we showed true guts and resilience and produced a fantastic effort.

“To be brutally frank and honest, Coleraine players were under the impression all they had to do was turn up.

“And, the evidence of that is how some of them reacted on social media, which was pretty poor in my opinion.

“If people want to behave that way, it’s entirely up to themselves.

“I took great satisfaction in the quality of our performance.

“We are obviously bitterly disappointed not to get over the line, but if there is some consolation it is the fact that if we have our full group of players fit and available, we will be a match for any side.

“Yes, we had a horrible league campaign, but a major contributing factor the unavailability of players through injury and suspension.

“While the league didn’t go well, we still managed to qualify for the second round of the Europa League and reached two cup finals.

“I’m not looking for words of comfort, I’m simply stating facts.

“While the performance was good, you need the ball to go into the back of the net – end of story.

“What we now must do is to learn how to get over the line.

“There was no chance whatsoever to recover after they scored.

“It was such a killer blow. Up until then, any neutral will say we were well in the game, but the reality is the heavy investment from the new owner (Ali Pour), paid a big dividend for Glentoran.

“That is meant in the best possible respect.

“You can assess statistics all down long, but at the end of the day it’s about the quality you produce.

“But I can only give an immense amount of praise for a collective effort by my players.

“They came back on June 27 and worked their socks off – they couldn’t have given anything more.

“These lads by the way were not being paid and that has to be recognised – the were receiving minimum expense for attending training. That speaks volumes about them – they were totally dedicated.”

After five final defeats in a row Jeffrey is hoping his side can keep pushing to secure major honours.

“We’ll take a week our two off, dust ourselves down and go again,” said Jeffrey.

“We’ll also look at what as good about the season just past, where we can improve and how we can get better.

“The league now is more competitive than it has ever been.

“We have proved we can get to cup finals...we’ve had three League Cup finals, two Shield finals, we’ve now been in the Irish Cup final.

“The challenge for us is how do we reach the next stage by getting over the line, into the winners’ podium,” he added.

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