Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
COLIN MILLAR WE’RE STILL IN TITLE TRUSSELL
By Striker Chris reckons his Ballyclare are in a great position for a late run come split
THE Championship title race is well and truly alive with Ballyclare still gunning to catch Warrenpoint at the top, says Comrades striker Chris Trussell.
The 27-year-old netted his tenth goal of the season to give the hosts the lead at Dixon Park in Saturday’s clash between the top two before Thomas Robison doubled the lead, but both Ballyclare scorers then had to come off injured as the league leaders battled to take a point.
“People are billing Warrenpoint as runaway leaders already but we more than matched them on Saturday and that gives us a bit of confidence and belief to keep pushing on,” stated Trussell.
“We’re not just fighting for second place, we have the potential to push for the title and after the split the chances of more teams taking points off each other makes six points seem even less significant.
“We know we’ve nothing to fear from any other sides in the league as we have the qualities to match and beat them, nothing is won or lost yet but we’re in a great position to go up even higher.
“Before the game a lot of outsiders may have thought a draw would have been a decent result for Ballyclare, but we only had thoughts on winning the game.
“We started very well and played at a really high tempo which they really struggled to deal with – we created lots of early chances and got two quick goals in the first half so we were in a strong position.
“Taking a step back and looking at the game as a whole, a point isn’t a bad result for us as it keeps our momentum going and there’s still plenty of football left to play.
“There was a poor tackle on myself – I got studs on the inside of my leg which caused my knee to swell up and anytime I tried to put pressure on my knee, it wasn’t having it so I had no choice but to come off.
“Fortunately it was just an impact injury and I’ll be back in training quite quickly but it’s rare having to come off and it’s not a nice feeling.”
Stephen Hughes’ men will have a week off on Saturday as they have already been eliminated from the Irish Cup, but will travel to Armagh the following week as they look to get back to winning ways.
“Over the years we haven’t had a lot of luck in
Armagh so we know all about how difficult a place it is to come away with anything,” continued Trussell.
“Holm Park is a big pitch which will hopefully suit us on the 3G surface as we can get the ball down and play a bit, and even though in theory that should suit us, we won’t be taking any chances and will have to be right on our game.
“We’ve been turned over down at Armagh more than once so we know how tough it’ll be and it’s one of those games where the result is hugely important in terms of what we’re looking to do this season.
“This Championship is the strongest I’ve ever seen, there’s not one easy game in this league anymore and you can see that by recent results against Warrenpoint by Annagh (2-2 in the league) and Armagh (a 3-2 extra time defeat in last week’s Mid Ulster Cup final).”