Another tight turnaround for Ballinderry

By Michael McMullan

WAS playing easier than management? Ballinderry boss Jarlath Bell’s answer is as short as it’s instant.

Absolutely. It’s Tuesday. Carrickcruppen’s visit to Celtic Park is days away and Ballinderry still can’t fully take it into view after overcoming Faughanvale in the Derry final.

There is a matter of a midweek reserve final win over Greenlough to secure another piece of silverware.

After a pulsating semi-final win over Banagher, the epic drawn final after extra-time led to a feisty replay Ballinderry dominated for the most part.

The celebrations carried over into Monday. It was Wednesday before Bell was able to fully assess who was in contention for Sunday’s Ulster opener.

“That’s not ideal preparation,” said Bell who was peeking at what the Armagh side will bring.

“I don’t really know anything about them (Carrickcruppen) and that maybe gives them a bit of an advantage.

“I’m sure there’s a few of their boys at the match (Derry final replay) on Saturday.

“They have three weeks of rest there too. We’ll just have to try and get a video here as quick as we can and work out where their strengths are.

“It’s just been a bit of a chaotic week and a half there. We’ll just have to get our head around things as quick as we can.”

To date, Ballinderry’s season was about any small gains and when a cup came into view, they attacked it with everything they had.

Images of their walk across the Ballinderry Bridge was the image of celebration. There was an element of relief too but, outside of the four 2013 Ulster Senior medalists, winning was a new feeling.

“A lot of lads never experienced what that was,” said Bell, one of the club’s 2002 All-Ireland winners.

“Regardless of the grade, to me, that’s irrelevant. If you have a championship to go out and win, you have to go out and ultimately win it.”

The parade took the cup across the bridge and into the club’s new state of the art community hub.

“It was probably just evidence of the magnitude of the win for a whole host of different reasons,” Bell said.

“It was 11 years without a trophy and underage hasn’t been where we wanted to be for a long time.

“That’s much to do with demographics because the primary school numbers are down so it just was a huge win in so many ways. Now you want a bit of a knock-on effect.”

On the Derry finals themselves, Bell reflects on how much Faughanvale brought to the table. He looks at their conditioning and how management duo Darrell O’Kane and Emmet McKeever had them set up.

The drawn game was about ‘Vale star Michael Sweeney’s imprint with Niall O’Donnell lighting up Saturday’s replay with four points.

His third came at a vital time after Gareth McKinless was dismissed on a second booking and Faughanvale cut the margin to two points.

“That was a huge one,” Bell recalls. “I was thinking that if these guys get one more score here, we’re on a slippery slope.”

Ryan Bell made vital catches in the closing stages as Faughanvale chased the goal they needed to save the game. It was also Ballinderry’s disciplined tackling that help close the door. It was their day after looking like slipping to defeat six days earlier.

“A number of lads weren’t happy with their performance on the first day,” Bell said of his side.

“You could just see that wee thing in them, that they were definitely going to have a better impact the next day, particularly younger lads.

“’Sucky’ (Bell) came to the fore at the end but there were four or five younger lads that really stepped up.

“To me, that really, that was a major contributor to getting over the line.”