Saturday 20th November

Glentoran 3 Ballymena Utd 1

Impressive Performance by Brian Russell

Glens Coast through against the Braidmen

On this cold day at the Oval a rather large crowd turned out to see the Champions extend their unbeaten run to 5 games, they might not be playing as well as last season but they are getting the results and the quality of football has steadingly increased in the last few weeks.  The visitors started the game in 8th position, and they looked very shaky in the first 20 minutes, with the Glens not really capitalizing on their mistakes.

The first effort fell to the No 9 for the Glens today taking over from the suspended Elliott but his shot was badly hit by Russell who sliced it well wide of O'Neill's goal.  One minute later Rainey was caught with a rough tackle by the No 8 Ricky Culbertson on David Rainey who strangely was not cautioned for the tackle. The Glens broke the deadlock on 18 minutes again through sloppy defending by Ballymena when an inviting cross by McCann was stabbed home past O'Neill by Scott Young for his 4th goal of the season, the Glens then forced a few corners but where well dealt with by O'Neill and Ballymena started then to work themselves more into the game starting to pass the ball alot more than what they had been doing.  Andrew Swalwell playing as the left winger today for Ballymena looked impressive and was giving Walker and Pete Batey alot of problems with his weaving runs the only thing that didn't let the visitors equalize was the poor finishing by Ballymena.

Half Time Glentoran 1 Ballymena Utd 0

The Glens started the second half brightly with Rory Hamill skipping past tackles down the right side but his tame shot was easily dealt with by O'Neill.  The Glens did however score their second goal 2 minutes later with Tim McCann delivering a pin point cross to Russell who did superbly well to chest down the cross and fire past O'Neill for his second goal of the season, he had deserved his goal showing great touches and holding the ball up well throughout the 90 minutes playing mainly as a target man.  In the 55th minute Batey had a chance to redeem himself for his again poor performance with Young laying the ball off to Batey as he seemed to walk through the defence but he miscued his shot well over the bar.  Then came Ballymena's first real shot with Glen Hunter but he sliced his shot well wide and into the empty terracing behind the goals.  With the Glens coasting it was time for Ian Gilzean to get into the action he replaced David Rainey who really didn't get into the game that was in 68th minute.  Two minutes later however Ballymena Utd did grab a goal out of the blue with a cross from Swalwell from the right and Gough mis-timed his jump and missed the ball and Barry Patton nodded home, a lifeline for the visitors when the Glens really were coasting.

The Glens seemed to have lost all rhythm when Ballymena had scored and where giving everything away and suddenly looked as if Ballymena might get an undeserved draw out of today, but the Glens who had a shaky 10 minutes started to find their pattern again and started to create the chances again.  77 minutes Gilzean had his first chance but he fluffed his shot and from the resulting cross by Gilzean, Rory Hamill shot inches wide.  Three minutes later Ballymena substitute Phillp Knell fouling Michael Ferguson and from the resulting free kick Ian Gilzean side footed straight at O'Neill, 4 minutes from time Ian Gilzean did score from a Scott Young corner, Gilzean headed past O'Neill who was unmarked.  So Ballymena Utd must be one of the worst teams the Glens have played this season and I can't see them improving either without buying a few new players.

Team

Man of the Match Brian Russell