Irish League star 'has the love and hunger back' after leading club to Christmas Day showdown
Ballymacash Rangers manager Gary Hamilton believes goalkeeper Jordan Williamson has made a “massive difference” since joining the club after they booked their spot in the Steel & Sons Cup final on Christmas Day.
Williamson featured in two Irish Cup finals for Ballymena United and also previously spent time on the books of Crusaders and Portadown prior to joining Hamilton’s Ballymacash ahead of the current season.
Still only 30, Williamson has put injury issues behind him and was quickly named captain, leading an ambitious club who have their sights set on scaling the Irish League pyramid.
He kept a sixth consecutive clean sheet across all competitions in Friday’s 3-0 semi-final triumph over Crumlin Star at Seaview.
With his vast experience, Williamson is also playing an important role in helping bring through the next generation at Ballymacash, who had three players aged 20 or under starting – Zach Woolsey, Reiss Neill and goalscorer Harry O’Neill.
“We talked before the game and I sent a text message out saying the only thing that maybe worried us was young players maybe freezing in their first semi-final, but they were unbelievable,” Hamilton told the club’s media channel. “Zach never put a foot wrong all night, Reiss Neill, Harry scored a goal.
"Flamer (Eamonn Hughes) in there, Stuarty Clarke again, and you look at the front two today...we’ve been saying we need to capitalise on chances and they’ve came away with a goal apiece. We can’t ask for any more.
"Jordan has been a massive difference to the football club as well, he has the love and hunger back and he’s a great leader for us.
"We’ve lots of leaders to help the younger lads...it looks as if it’s going in the right direction. It was the first big test we had in terms of a semi-final or big, big game and the boys have passed the test.”
The Steel & Sons Cup final is one of the standout days on the intermediate football calendar with the showpiece decider traditionally played on December 25.
There’ll be a new name on the iconic trophy with third-tier Ballymacash facing Amateur League outfit Holywood, who defeated Rosario last week, and Hamilton was delighted to deliver for everyone associated with his club.
"I’m proud of all the boys,” he added. “They gave everything...I told them before the game that I thought our fitness levels would be too much for them and it proved that way.
"They’re a good side, really strong, physical and they put it up to us, but I thought we had that bit of extra quality on the night and I keep going back to our fitness levels, they were extreme and at the end we were still going.
"I’m delighted for everyone associated with the club, for Stuart and the committee, especially Tommy, and everybody else because they’ve been to semi-final of this and the Intermediate and never managed to cross the line.
"Thankfully we’ve been able to do that as a team and the boys deserve full credit, it was all them. We can only say so much, when they cross the white line it’s on them to deliver and tonight they did. They were exceptional.”