Ballymena United manager Jim Ervin 'not going to get carried away' or entertain Premiership title talk despite eighth consecutive league win
Ballymena United manager Jim Ervin insists his side aren’t “going to get carried away” and refused to entertain any potential Premiership title talk after the Sky Blues maintained top spot with their eighth consecutive league win against Glenavon.
Ben Kennedy’s second-half penalty – his 11th goal of the season and sixth spot-kick success – proved to be the difference as Ervin’s men continued their incredible run which has them one point clear of Linfield at the summit, just a matter of months after staving off relegation by the slimmest of margins.
Saturday’s triumph marked an 11th win on the trot across competitions and brought Ballymena onto 24 points after 12 league matches – they amassed only 28 across the whole of last season, further indicating just how dramatic their turnaround in form has been.
The travelling support serenaded their players with chants of ‘we are top of the league’ at the final whistle following a hard-fought victory, but Ervin prefers to focus on the present rather than long-term picture.
"We’re not going to get carried away or sucked into anything like that,” he said. “We’re 12 games into the season so it’s far, far too early for any chat.
"We have our own expectations in-house and it’ll stay that way with those being our targets. We’re not going to get taken away from that – they’ll remain the same and we’ll keep going.
"I was never really into stats as a player and I’m certainly not into them as a coach. It’s just about winning games – that’s the key thing.
"It’s getting as many points on the board as quickly as possible. You get into that winning habit. It’s all down to the players – the attitude they have is top drawer, they’re so determined, so close and they set standards for themselves.
"They’ve done it every week since we came in during pre-season and it’s really starting to pay off. They drive each other on and it’s them who are grinding results out when they have to.”
Perhaps the most pleasing aspect of Ballymena’s performance for Ervin was their defensive solidity with this a fourth league clean sheet, which helped halt the unbeaten streak of opponents Glenavon.
Since losing to Ballymena at the end of August, the Lurgan Blues had went nine games unbeaten across competitions with Saturday’s contest matching first versus fourth in terms of Premiership points picked up over the last five matches.
"I think people maybe disrespected Glenavon and thought we’d come here today and just do them – Glenavon are unbeaten since the last time we played them,” added Ervin. "Full credit to them and the run they’ve been on.
"We knew it was going to be a difficult game because it always is down here, regardless of form or league position. They’d a lot of confidence so it was always going to be difficult.
"You’re not going to win games comfortably – that’s two on the bounce now beating Cliftonville on Tuesday night 1-0 (in the Co Antrim Shield) and now here 1-0. The three points really pleases me but the clean sheet pleases me more.”