Men's Firsts make dream start to new campaign

Having lost a large number of players from the season before and relying on some younger players to fill their shoes, it was thought that Ballymena would need time to rebuild a team which could compete at a high level in the sport.

However, all critics were proved wrong when Ballymena showed that team spirit and simple passing are sometimes more important than a group of elite players.

Both goals came from young Matthew Corbett in the second half. The first was set up by superb play from Mark Allison. Following a clever turn, Allison used his reverse stick to direct the ball across the circle out of the reach of the Saintfield keeper, into the path of Corbett for a simple tap in.

The second goal had a stoke of luck to it, when Corbett struck the ball towards goal where a deflection fooled the keeper whose attempts to reach for it with his leg were badly misjudged, as the ball trundled into the goal.

Saintfield will probably feel hard done by and perhaps a little bewildered by the result as they did have plenty of possession and Ballymena did not always close them down in the way Saintfield did on them.

Strong defending at the back from Davey McDonald and some vital saves from the home keeper, Alister Gibson prevented any damage on the scoresheet by their opponents.

Ballymena are in Group B of the Linden Cup and will now face matches against Larne next week and then Armagh, who are the only Senior One team in the group.

But it will be Ballymena whom everyone will have to look out for, as a new team will mean that other clubs can not expect to know the players and how they will perform.

Paul Harvey, the new men’s coach at Ballymena was very proud of the team not only because they moved the ball well but they also managed to put into their game set pieces that they had been practising at training.

“Their pass and movement were clinical,” explained Paul “and we have been working on touch ins on a Tuesday night which were clearly evident in the attacking play.”

This result will give Ballymena hope and belief for what is predicted to be a tough season. However two of Saturday’s young stars, Adam Jackson and Jack Gibson, will be unavailable for most of the season as they are going to university. Likewise Clive Fulton will be missed most weekends due to work commitments in Scotland.

But with Andy Lorimer and Victor Orr still to return to the team the men will be expecting similar results in the weeks to come.

Ballymena: Tori Alexander, Adam Jackson, Jack Gibson, Davey McDonald, Mark Allison, Andrew Shields, Matthew Corbett, Chris Hogg, Jonny Holmes, Clive Fulton, Alistair Gibson, Andrew McKelvey.