Ballymena United boss Oran Kearney may view on-song striker Igor Rutkowski as someone “I would hate to play against” but he certainly loves watching the January signing in Sky Blue.

A midweek brace helped Ballymena open up a three-point gap on Crusaders outside the top-flight relegation zone to bring Rutkowski to six Premiership goals in five appearances.

Following that 2-0 win over the Crues – which marked a first of 2026 for Kearney’s United – the Ballymena boss was full of praise for his forward.

"I knew within 20 seconds of meeting him that he was our guy because - and to me it's something that's very important and I said it to the guys in the changing room on probably one of the first nights here – hunger is one of the biggest assets that you can have in life,” said Kearney on the official Ballymena club social media platforms. "And I think his journey through football, of maybe not getting chances at Portadown in his opinion and going out on loan and playing at Armagh in a team that wasn't maybe in and around the better teams in that league but with a real chip on his shoulder, scoring goals and putting in performances and working really hard...I think you see that in his play, there's a hunger.

placeholder image — Ballymena United striker Igor Rutkowski. (Photo by Pacemaker Press)

"He'd be horrible to play against, I would hate to play against him...there's a real work ethic with him. He gives so much for the team but, more importantly, as a striker you're judged on goals as well and for what chances we have been able to create for him, he scored the majority of them."

Despite a string of frustrating fixtures across league, Irish Cup and BetMcLean Cup this year, Kearney kept the faith that performances would produce an end product.

“I think it's been coming – defeats are hard for a changing room, they're hard for fans, they're hard for everybody,” he said. "I think the standard of opposition in the last four or five games hasn't helped and it's been tough when you're playing, I suppose, full-time team after full-time team.

"But, for me, in three-and-a-half of those four games, my performances were really good.

"Yes, I absolutely understand it's a results game but I think when you see the level of performance over the last three or four games, I could see that it was building and I could see it was getting there.

"And I think the big driver tonight was to demand the same level, to go out and absolutely hit the same level as the last few weeks.

"On what could have been an edgy night and what can be a stressful time, I thought the way the guys handled it from start to finish was really, really good.

"Really mature, very calm, we passed it at times when we could.

"Credit to Igor.

“In stages like this, a win's a win and if you'd have given me the messiest 2-0 win ever, I'd probably have taken that as well.

"But I think the manner of it as well is the bit that's even more encouraging.”