Things are changing for Ballymartin ladies. After a league campaign that looked dismal five matches in, the Mourne club have enjoyed a victory over Warrenpoint at the start of June, and then a draw against Rostrevor last week.
Manager Donal Kane explained the Ballymartin ladies’ current run of form. “I am delighted they are going the right way. It has taken a while for them to realise their own ability and how well they can play football. They have listened to what I have asked them to do. They are starting to play good football.”
Last weekend was a big result for Ballymartin. They drew with Rostrevor on a scoreline of 3-13 to 3-13. That’s significant, because back at the start of May, Rostrevor beat Ballymartin ladies by 3-16 to 0-8.
Donal said one aspect of their play in the drawn game particularly pleased him: “They are making the right decisions on the pitch without me roaring at them. When we got up front, the right person in the right position got the ball. Prior to that there would have been a shot taken and it would have been blocked down and turned over, when maybe a girl was standing in a free position.”
Donal said there was so much to be pleased about in terms of the performance, including Sarah Gorman, one of the younger players, scoring three goals. “I said to them at half-time just before they went out that I fully believed we were going to win this match. I said to them that ‘you have to fully believe in your own ability’. I believed that they were going to push up and turn them over and that is exactly what they did. We got three goals and played very well. I was delighted with the way they played. They played some magical football.”
The Ballymartin ladies drew the match, but Donal felt that they should have won the game. But they succumbed to a late goal. “We were three up with a couple of minutes to go and it was a high ball from a free kick (that led to the goal). You can go mad, but for me, for the girls that was a learning. If you don’t take some type of learning from the game, then you are not doing anything right.”
The turnaround of performance from the defeat at the start of May to the battling draw in the middle of June can be explained in a number of ways. One of those is resources. Donal said, “We struggled for numbers for the first half of the year and we probably should have won a few more games. We were narrowly beat in a few games. We have girls in England studying, and girls who picked up injuries. They do not have a big panel. Maybe 26 girls. Only in the last few weeks they have started to pick up numbers.”
In the full article Donal goes on to explain the moment when he realised that Ballymartin were back on track.
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