Ballymena United confirm departure of manager David Jeffrey

It comes two days after their 4-0 Irish Cup final defeat to Crusaders at Windsor Park – the third competition decider Jeffrey had led the Sky Blues to in the past four seasons.

Jeffrey, who enjoyed a trophy-laden 17-year spell with Linfield which included winning nine Premiership titles, took over from Glenn Ferguson in March 2016 and in the following campaign they picked up the BetMcLean Cup with a 2-0 final victory against Carrick Rangers.

They made it back to another final in the very next season but missed out on defending their title with a narrow 1-0 defeat to Linfield.

In total, the 60-year-old took charge of 346 Ballymena games across competitions, winning 163, drew 48 and lost 136 times.

“Ballymena United can announce that David Jeffrey has left the club this evening by mutual consent,” the club posted on Twitter.

“We thank David for his achievements at the Showgrounds during his time here, not least for our League Cup win and European forays, and express our best wishes to him for the future.

"We will make an announcement in the near future about the way forward for the Sky Blues.”

In what turned out to be his final press conference as Ballymena boss after the Irish Cup final, Jeffrey said: "We gave folk hope and expectation when we beat Larne in the semi-final and that was quite an outstanding performance.

"But let's not fool ourselves - we were at our very, very best that night and Larne maybe just weren't..

"I said in preparation to the players that they will face a much different Crusaders side this year than the one they faced last year because of how close they came to not winning it.

"You could see from the get-go their intent and their intensity.

"The reality is that, like I said beforehand, if you look at the league table where we are at and where they are at, it needed us to reproduce what we did in the semi-final if we were to stand a chance.

"The players gave their best on the day but they know themselves they didn't come anywhere near what they're capable of.

"In every aspect of the performance, we didn't hit the heights that we needed to hit.

"However, the gulf in class today was there to be seen."

Jeffrey also led Ballymena on two European adventures, the highlight of which was a UEFA Europa League first qualifying round victory over NSÍ Runavík from the Faroe Islands.

Defeat on Sunday meant the Sky Blues, who finished ninth in the Premiership table, missed out on booking their spot in Europe next season.

"It would have been lovely to win the Irish Cup and everything that goes with it today, but the most important thing for me if Ballymena were successful was the European monies,” Jeffrey added after defeat to Crusaders.

"The reality is one of the bigger clubs has been strengthened again, and our opportunity to be able to strengthen has been taken away.

"That's the reality of the world we live in, we just have to accept that.

"You don't lie down or make an excuse, you're up for a fight and there are days when you will beat the big boys and have your glory days, but over the piece that's how it is.

"I'm not going to start crying foul or have a pity party because I think the investment in the league is very good all over.

"But the reality for some clubs, and ourselves being one of them, is that gulf is there.

"With the greatest respect in the world, who were two of Crusaders' best players today? Adam Lecky and Jude Winchester.

"We couldn't hold on to them, that's the long and short of it.

"They came and did fabulously well with us, no matter what we could do we couldn't retain them, they chose to go elsewhere which is absolutely fine.

"But that's the reality of things."