It was another enjoyable afternoon for the Swifts fans who made the trip to Ballymena, and the many following from home, as the team rewarded them with another hard-earned victory – the second on the bounce.
Coming into his 250th match as Swifts boss, Rodney McAree made just one change to the side which defeated Cliftonville 2-1 at Stangmore last week, bringing in Sean McAllister for Tomás Galvin.
After making an appearance for the U20s against Portadown on Monday night, Darragh McBrien also made a welcome return to the squad following an injury suffered against former club Ballinamallard United during pre-season.
After an uneventful first 10 minutes of the game, the first chance fell to the away side. Midfielder Kealan Dillon whipped in a corner from the right-hand side which was initially cleared by the hosts, only to find Danny Wallace who fired a second ball in and, after a couple of attempts at goal, the Ballymena United defence cleared.
Thirteen minutes later, the home side came close to opening the scoring. A cross from a sky blue shirt on the right ended up with Matthew Clarke, whose shot was saved well by Declan Dunne in goal and gathered on the second attempt.
A short while later, the away side were celebrating after taking a 1-0 lead. Bobby-Jack McAleese found himself on his own just outside the area, and after composing himself, he unleashed his shot which drifted past Sean O’Neill to score his first goal for the Swifts.
Rodney said afterwards: “It’s great to see Bobby-Jack score. He’s such a good kid. He’s well thought of within the dressing room, he’s a bit of a character as well.
“He doesn’t fancy himself as a goal scorer, but he’s somebody who I feel as if should weigh in with more goals. He has great legs, he’s got great energy, he’s technically very good, and he can get into the box more often, but it’s just fantastic, even with his with his weaker foot, his left foot, and it was fantastic to see it go in off the post.”
Within two minutes, there would be further chances at both ends. First, a Ballymena United free kick was whipped in by Ben Kennedy, only to bounce across the face of goal past everyone in the box and just past the post.
Then, at the other end, Adam Glenny supplied the ball to Sean McAllister in the box, who laid the ball to Junior and he expertly turned only for his shot to be saved by O’Neill in goal.
The Swifts would then double their lead. Kealan Dillon sent in a dangerous free kick, and after a defensive mishap, the ball deflected off the leg of Ballymena player Kym Nelson and into his own goal.
Things only looked to be getting better for the Swifts, especially when Adam Glenny won a penalty following a challenge by goalkeeper O’Neill. However, Junior’s spot kick smashed off the inside of the post, and the score remained 2-0 going into half-time.
Chances were few and far between for the first 15 minutes of the second period, but in a 10-minute spell, Ballymena began to pile pressure on the Swifts.
First, a shot from a corner was cleared off the line by Swifts captain Gaël Bigirimana. Then, Ben Kennedy was fouled and the resulting free kick, taken by Lafferty, was drilled wide.
Finally, Kennedy whipped in a corner from the right, which was cleared by Wallace but a second ball into the box was just missed by Kennedy.
After another 15 minutes which saw only half chances and a number of substitution, the Swifts would create an opportunity with one minute of normal time left.
Just outside of the area, Junior won a header and nodded it to substitute Thomas Maguire, who chased after it to pull the ball across the box, only to find a sky blue shirt instead of yellow.
This would turn out to be the final involvement of the half, and the game, with the Swifts picking up their third league win of the season.
Rodney gave his thoughts afterwards.
“We worked extremely hard through the week for a game of football at the weekend, and all you want to do is get the three points. There probably hasn’t been enough of them at this stage this season.
“But, I thought we were very good today in the first half, first 40 minutes especially. I thought we got a little bit careless just before half time and it was important that we got in at half time with a clean sheet and give ourselves something to build on. Second half, we could have maybe been a little bit better with the ball, but I thought we were disciplined and professional without it and I thought I thought we saw the game out well.
“We have three wins from four games in the league which is great, and if you live in the present, it’s very good. Obviously there was a patch before that we don’t want to return to.
“We have an extremely tough game coming up against Larne and another one after that, so we have to be at our very best if we’re going to continue it on, but that’s the challenge, that’s what we look forward to, we look forward to getting back into training as a group this week and preparing for our next game at home to Larne.”
Ballymena United: O’Neill (GK) (C), Nelson (O’Reilly 45’), Lafferty (Thompson 70’), Toure, Gould (McCurry 45’), Kennedy (Jarvis 79’), O’Donnell, Clarke, Edogun (McNickle 70’), Corbally, Hood.
Unused Substitutes: Breen (GK), McCallion.
Dungannon Swifts: Dunne, S. Scott, Marron, Kelly (Mitchell 88’), Dillon (Alves 64’), Glenny, McAleese (T. Maguire 53’), Wallace, Bigirimana (C), Junior, McAllister (Knowles 64’).
Unused Substitutes: Henderson (GK), McBrien, Anderson.
Up next for the Swifts is a return to Stangmore Park on Saturday at 3pm to face Larne. Up the Swifts!
