Jeffrey not ready to be gripped by title fever

CLIFTONVILLE went the same way as Crusaders and Glenavon before them as Ballymena United’s unlikely title bid took another giant leap forwards on Saturday.

But for David Jeffrey is was just another small step on his journey at Warden Street and while he’s enjoying the ride he is too long in the tooth to be getting carried away just yet.

The win consolidated Ballymena in third spot, just two points behind Glenavon and four behind Linfield, who come to the Showgrounds in a fortnight’s time.

Cathair Friel was a constant menace, his goal setting the Sky Blues on their way three minutes after the restart as he caught the Reds napping to latch on to Johnny Addis’ crossfield pass and finished with style.

Cliftonville had no answer to the all-action, all-effort style of the home side, who deservedly added a second when Steven McCullough curled in a wonderful free-kick past Brian Neeson.

Forced to shake things up, Barry Gray threw on two substitutes and one of them, Conor McDonald, tapped home with seven

minutes to go to set up a frantic last few moments of the game.

Jeffrey was beaming afterwards and for him it was another three points, but another step forward in what he and assistant Bryan McLoughlin are trying to achieve at the Showgrounds.

“There are a group of us that occupy the top six/seven and we’re always battling with them and they’re the ones you’re hoping can you get the points there to push you and try and consolidate you,” he explained.

“And then you’re looking to see can you get anything off the more established teams and people have got to remember we brought in eight or nine new players in.

“This is a brand new group and this is another step along in our journey that Bryan and I have been on and that’s the challenge we’re putting out to the players — what can you do?

“You think of the rise of Crusaders, Cliftonville, the rise of Glenavon and Coleraine, and they call went down a similar path — they were battling relegation, then they looked to get into the top six, then they looked to get into Europe, then they looked to challenge for trophies and then looked to challenge for the league.

“There are five of six steps on that journey and we are getting there at the moment. At the moment. No one is getting carried away but it is pleasing.”

Friel thoroughly enjoyed his eighth goal of the campaign but for him it was all about the bigger picture and while no one is allowed to talk about titles, the striker is pinching himself a little.

“It’s unreal. In the last 10 games that’s nine wins and a draw and if you’d said we’d have that many points with the run of games we’ve had, we’d have taken the arm of you,” he said.

“We’ve beaten Glenavon and the Crues, and when you’re beating teams like that and playing well, it’s great.

“We always get it tight against Cliftonville and when you’re beating teams like that and playing well, you grow in confidence and at the minute we feel we can beat anybody.”

As for Gray it was a black day and he didn’t spare his players blushes.

“It tends to beat rend of ours where we show up to the party when the chips are flat on the floor,” he said.

“There was very little in the game but we’ve come away with nothing. We’d have taken a point today against a very in-form Ballymena side at home but we didn’t and credit to Ballymena for that.

“I am not going to name players, but there were substantial periods in the game today where we had three, four, if not five, players who contributed for no more than 20 minutes and that’s shockingly bad.”