Jim Ervin acknowledges pressure will increase at Ballymena United after summer transfer activity

Having made eye-catching moves for former Northern Ireland international Josh Carson and Ben Kennedy last summer, Ervin has once again been backed in the market with the likes of Matthew Clarke, Daire O’Connor and David Toure arriving at The Showgrounds.

Clarke won four league titles during a trophy-laden spell at Linfield and has returned home after a stint in Scotland, while winger O’Connor netted 15 goals and provided 14 assists throughout his last Irish League campaign with Glentoran prior to joining Hamilton Academical.

Both players, alongside talented full-back Toure, attracted significant interest from a host of clubs before opting to join Ballymena, who are looking to improve on last season's ninth-placed Premiership finish.

With former Derry City midfielder Patrick McEleney also on Ballymena’s books, Ervin has significant talent at his disposal and with that brings an increased expectation level for success, but he’s looking his squad to embrace the challenge.

"Yeah 100% (there’s more pressure and expectation),” he said. “There's always going to be pressure on you at any football club and the more high-profile players you sign that's only going to increase.

"That's to be expected, there's nobody in the management game who wouldn't expect that.

"I'm well aware and it's something I said to the players that expectation levels outside of the football club will rise and it's up to us to cope with those demands.

"Expectation levels outside will rise. The board have been brilliant, know what we're looking to build and have supported it. We have had plenty of honest conversations...it's now counting down the days and getting ready to go."

Ervin has brought in eight players so far this summer – Ryan McNickle, Ali Gould, Declan Breen, Jack O’Reilly and Joel Thompson have also joined – while 10 have departed from last season’s panel, including talented teenager Luke Hawe, who earned a move to Southampton.

Ballymena won eight matches on the trot towards the start of last season, a run which briefly sent them top of the Premiership, but they were victorious in just six of their next 26.

Having learnt lessons from his second full campaign in management, former Linfield defender Ervin has looked to further bolster the quality in his squad in order to climb the table.

"We felt that we fell a good bit short last year of where we intended to be,” he added. “We were hit at times with a lot of injuries, but that's part and parcel of football.

"It's about having a squad where when you have those injuries you're able to cope with them and you have the same quality of player coming in, and that's what we've done this summer.

"We've tried to bring better into the football club and that means when you pick a squad on a Saturday you've equal quality or better to come off the bench.

"That allows you to build competition levels and nobody can get comfortable. Only time will tell if it's worked for us or not...we will find out on the pitch how it went."