Villagers do the hat-trick by beating United again!

SINCE losing 4-1 to high-flying Cliftonville on December 16, Loughgall's have bounced back in impressive style.

Written off as relegation fodder before a ball had been kicked in the 2023/24 Sports Direct Premiership, the Dean Smith-managed locals have quietly got on with proving those critics wrong.

On Saturday they once again showed that they deserve the status they achieved at the end of last season when, having won the Championship, they were upgraded.

Results since August have proved that - currently at any rate - they are good enough to be competing at this level.

Yes, there have been matches in which they have been well beaten and a barren period when they failed to pick up points. But that is totallly in keeping with what their always grounded manager had always predicted would be the case. And at such times, to their credit, they have accepted the reality of what he forecast and, in the parlance of football, figuratively dusted themselves down, climbed back on the metaphorical horse and got going again.

This is the Smith approach: “Just as we don’t get too carried away when we win, neither do we get too down when we don’t.”

That keeps things simple... and in perspective. And it is as a result of that positive mindset, coupled with no lack of ability, that they have won three of their past four Premiership fixtures – two of them away from home – thereby adding nine of a possible 12 points to their tally.

Their recent record shows them as having beaten Dungannon Swifts 2-1 at Lakeview Park on Boxing Day and Coleraine 3-1 at The Showgrounds on December 30 before losing 2-1 at home to league leaders Linfield who are the biggest club in the country, and then beating Ballymena United 1-0 on their own North Antrim pitch on Saturday past.

And so it is that they find themselves 7th of the 12 Premiership clubs, a point behind Coleraine over whom they have a game in hand. Those beneath them are Carrick Rangers, Glenavon, Dungannon, Ballymena and Newry City.

Saturday’s single-goal victory over opponents fighting for their top-flight survival and therefore desperate for points was a real test of character. And once again the players of the smallest club competing in any of the top strata in all of the European countries proved that they have said-character in abundance.

Nathaniel Ferris’s all-important goal came just beyond the 60-minutes mark. The preceding hour had seen Ballymena threaten more than once, only to be thwarted by the Ben Murdock-marshalled Loughgall back four who had withstood the best the Sky Blues were able to throw at them.

And then, as is so often the case in football, those who had at times been on the ropes delivered a knock-out punch which ultimately proved decisive in flooring hosts whose jabbing had been insufficient to floor opponents as doughty as Loughgall.

It was they who delivered the here’s-how-it’s-done blow that out-scored the hosts’ tentatively accumulated meagre points tally over the course of what, for them, was another pointless afternoon’s work. This was United’s 19th such outcome in 27 league outings of which they have won just 5 and drawn the other 3 giving that a paltry 18 points. As a result, they are second-bottom in the table.

In contrast, Loughgall’s much-superior vital statistics are played 26, won 9, drawn 4. lost 13, points 31.

Saturday was the home side’s third defeat of the campaign at the hands of The Villagers. And it was no classic spectacle – more grime and grit than grace, in truth.

Indeed, it was midway through the first half of an up-to-that-point ultra-cautious affair before the first effort worth noting which finally came from a quickly taken Murdock free-kick which put Benji Magee away only for the Premiership’s second highest scorer of the season to date – 15 thus far – to shoot uncharacteristiccaly tamely at home ‘keeper Sean O'Neill.

Ballymena responded with Johnny McMurray volleying off target after stretching to meet a Ryan Waide cross. And just before the break the same player was off target again when Kym Nelson pulled the ball back invitingly for him to try his luck.

Then early in the second half McMurray had another half-chance, but although he managed to get this one on target it failed to beat Loughgall ‘keeper Berraat Turker.

And then came the breakthrough at the far end, with Ferris heading a Pablo Andrade cross from the right past O’Neill and into the back of the hosts’ net.

How would they respond to that blow? Well, predictably in the final quarter of the match, they went all-out for a leveller, and for a fleeting moment they probably thought they had one when a Steven McCullough free-kick looked to be goal-bound. And indeed it would have been, had not Turker dived to his right to make an outstanding save.

But Loughgall can point to an equally close attempt moments later when a Jordan Gibson effort was headed off the line by Waide with his ‘keeper O’Neill beaten all ends up.

Ballymena then struck a post following a scramble in the Loughgall box. And almost on the full-time whistle the home side’s Calvin McCurry - in his and his team’s anxiety - fired wide when a cooler head might have made more of the opportunity.

So, three more points for Smith’s heroes who now face a trio of huge tests in the form of this weekend’s Irish Cup Round 5 date with Cliftonville at Solitude, followed by Premiership pairings with a trip to Larne on Friday night, February 9, and a Lakeview clash with Crusaders on Saturday, February 17.

Ballymena United: O’Neill, Nelson, Rocks, Whiteside, Waide, McCullough, Taylor, McMurray, Boyle, Brown, Robinson.

Substitutes: Johnston, McGrory, Tennant, Place, Stewart, Barr, McCurry

Loughgall: Turker, Rea, Murdock, Andrade, Ferris, Hoey, Norton, Gibson, Balde, Magee, Loughran.

Substitutes: Devine, Carson, McAleer, Patton, Carroll, Harvey, Towe

Referee: Mark Dillon