Ballymartin’s promotion push in their own hands

THE next two games will tell the tale for Ballymartin according to joint-manager Tony Bagnell as they aim to climb out of Division Four with three rounds of fixtures still to play.

Following their win over St Paul’s last Friday night, Bagnall’s men climbed to second in the table, three points shy of league leaders Drumaness and one point above Ardglass.

There’s a break in the Down leagues until the end of the month and then Ballymartin face both Drumaness (away) and Ardglass (home) in the space of six days.

Ballymartin have won 10 of their 13 outings to date and last week’s 4-17 to 2-11 away win over St Paul’s stretched their unbeaten run to five on the bounce.

The sides were matched 0-10 apiece at the half-time break, but with the breeze at their backs, second-half goals from Ryan Higgins (2), Rory Quinn and Ryan McCullagh saw Ballymartin collect the two-points on offer.

“Promotion is still the target, and we have a three-week break now so we might be able to get a few boys back for the last three games,” said Bagnall, who takes the team alongside former Down footballer Aidan Carr.

“We know if we win our next few games, we’ll probably be promoted. At the minute it’s in our hands but the other teams we’re coming up against will all be saying the same thing.

“Our numbers are fairly stretched now – we picked up a lot of injuries in the last five or six weeks and that has sort of hindered us a bit.

“They’re all niggles and there’s a few boys playing on through them that probably shouldn’t be playing when they’re not 100 percent right, but our numbers are very light. There are some really good lads there and they train hard.”

On the influence of Clonduff clubman Carr in the dressing room, Bagnall said, “Aidan retired from playing (club football) last year so this is his first real coaching job and he’s going well, he’s very good.

“The boys obviously have a lot of respect for Aidan. He has had a long career with both club and county at the highest level so it’s hard to argue against him, he knows what he’s talking about.”