Jim Ervin 'over the moon' with Ballymena United victory after illness impacted number of his players
Ballymena United manager Jim Ervin admits he was “over the moon” with an emphatic 4-0 Premiership win against Bangor which maintained their perfect start to the new season – and had an extra source of pride considering a number of his players battled through illness.
The Sky Blues have now kept three consecutive clean sheets and also fired in front of goal on Saturday with Calvin McCurry and Ben Kennedy striking in the first half before Kian Corbally added a brace after the break.
It leaves Ballymena sitting in third at this very early stage, trailing only Glentoran and Coleraine, who have both played one game more, but Ervin was made to sweat on the availability of several key stars prior to their weekend contest.
They battled through to pick up three points at The Showgrounds and Ervin admits he couldn’t have asked for much more from his side.
"I’m over the moon,” he told the club’s media channel. “Coming into the game, it’s a really difficult tie.
"We haven’t had the perfect week. We’ve had probably seven or eight boys get in contact with us yesterday to say they had flu-like symptoms and they were touch and go ahead of the game.
"They soldiered through, they came and give it everything they’ve got, and they were dead on their feet. You have to expect that when they have came through what they have this week.
"For that, I’m over the moon and I’m delighted with the result on top of that. A clean sheet at home, four goals, we couldn’t have asked for much more.”
Corbally, who joined Ballymena from Wexford in January, has impressed in the early stages of his Irish League career and Ervin hopes the 21-year-old will be able to continue his goalscoring form.
"It’s probably the one thing he has been lacking in his play is scoring goals,” he added. “We’ve been happy with what he does in possession, but the one thing that has been missing is goals.
"I’m delighted for him to get two today because we know he can deliver on it and I’m really pleased for him.”
Ballymena make the trip to Larne, who are still without a permanent manager following Nathan Rooney’s shock exit but responded in fine fashion with an impressive 4-0 win over Portadown, on Friday evening.
Since an opening day defeat to high-flying Coleraine, the Inver Reds have picked up a point against Cliftonville followed by an emphatic victory, and Ervin is expecting a tough test.
However, his immediate focus is on ensuring his players recover fully from illness and return to peak condition.
"We’re going to have to look after the boys,” he said. “We’ve told them to go and look after themselves this weekend because it has been a difficult few days with the amount of them who went down with illness.
"We have a very difficult tie at Inver. They’ve started off really well off the back of their European adventure so that makes for a really good game and we hope the fans get down in their numbers.”