Jim Ervin confident Ballymena United youngsters will continue to benefit from Premiership experience

Last weekend’s 3-2 victory over Loughgall, which was a first league success of 2024 and helped end a winless run of nine matches, opened up a five-point gap on bottom side Newry City with four matches left to play.

It has been a difficult first campaign in senior management for Ervin with the Sky Blues battling relegation for the large majority of it, but he’ll be hoping they’ve hit form at the right time and for a repeat of their last trip to the Loughview Leisure Arena, where Ballymena won 1-0 in September.

With an array of players leaving last summer, the ex-Linfield defender has had to turn to youth and according to Irish League statistician Marshall Gillespie, only Glenavon (4,740) have handed more minutes to teenagers this season than Ballymena (3,732), many of whom are getting their first extended Premiership opportunity.

"It's about learning...another thing you've to look at is that we've such a young squad,” Ervin told the club’s media channel. “Those players will learn from the experiences they've had this season and when they learn they'll not find themselves in the same position or make the same mistake again.

"We're a really good footballing team, but sometimes the Irish League is about playing to the conditions, to the percentages and knowing when to play and when to go long. We showed against Loughgall that we can do that and we're a threat when we do that."

With 10th-placed Dungannon Swifts now mathematically out of reach, the best case scenario for Ballymena is a relegation play-off – unless Dundela win the Championship title, which would mean Ervin’s men finishing 11th seals safety.

Newry welcome Dungannon to the Showgrounds on Saturday and three of their final four matches will be at home – the only trip is to Ballymena on April 20 – but Ervin insists his full focus is on what Ballymena can control.

"We just want to look after ourselves and we don't look at other teams' results,” he added. “Yes it's pleasing that there's a five-point gap going into Saturday, but as I've said to the players and staff, we'll focus on ourselves and worry about others if or when the time comes.

"We would like it to be a lot bigger and that's up to us on Saturday to go and do that."