Ballymena out to restore pride in crunch game

By Michael McMullan

A CRUNCH weekend lies ahead for All Saints and league champions Creggan as the Antrim Senior Football Championship group stages reach their conclusion.

While a draw would be enough for Ballymena-based All Saints on Sunday, due to score difference, Creggan have no option but to win, so a mouth-watering clash awaits.

Antrim player Paddy McAleer is a key cog in the Ballymena engine. After losing to St John’s on their last day out, he knows exactly what’s up for grabs. The winner takes all.

“After the hangover of last year’s championship, not winning any of our group games, we wanted to walk away from this championship with some pride,” McAleer said of their determination to make their mark and reach the knock-outs.

“Last year we had high hopes after a good league campaign. We didn’t really pick up much momentum in our league this year and we wanted to go in with a different approach.”

Creggan were winners when the sides met in last year’s opener. All Saints subsequently lost to St John’s and Lámh Dhearg.

The Johnnies were narrow winners this season but Ballymena are in a better position than last year with a quarter-final berth still within reach.

“Going into the Lámh Dhearg game last year, we were looking to avoid relegation, whereas now, we’re looking at the chance of a quarter final.

“It’s going to be one of those games where it’s one moment at a time, one challenge at a time, it’s going to be ding dong.”

McAleer looks back at how St John’s controlled the recent game as something they will have to address this weekend. All Saints must also focus on their own game management.

“We had four chances going down the straight,” he said. “I probably could have clipped a point and went for my goal chance.

“On three other occasions, we went for goal rather than tipping over the bar. We could have stolen the draw.”

Different factors

Creggan won the league this year and beat Ballymena the 2025 decider but McAleer feels the teams have different motivating factors this weekend.

“I can’t speak for Creggan, but it’s two different teams on different parts of their journeys,” he said.

“We’re a team that’s come up from a long spell in intermediate, with a group of lads aged 24, 25, 26, who are hungry to compete at senior football.

“That’s what we’ve wanted to really nail down this year. Now we’ve got the opportunity to continue being competitive in a senior championship.”

“I would imagine Creggan are probably still sore from that Cargin loss last year and they no doubt have aspirations of winning a championship.”

Another factor worth considering is that Creggan have always had Ballymena’s number when they’ve met.

“I honestly don’t remember being a senior footballer and ever beating them,” he said.