BALLYNAHINCH United manager Kyle Rendall says his side’s recent run of form is down to his squad being “decimated by injuries”.
After winning the opening two games of the season, 2-1 against Suffolk in the Steel and Sons Cup and 4-1 against the same side in the league, the Millbridge outfit have failed to pick up another victory since then.
In their last nine games in league and cup, Ballynahinch have lost seven and drawn two, including a 6-0 Intermediate Cup defeat to Colin Valley on Saturday.
However, the Blues have been hit hard with injuries, with Rendall without 25 first team players at one point earlier in the season.
Rendall is currently missing six first team regulars, including new summer signings Ross Murray and Sé Campbell. He’s also without starting goalkeeper and captain Stefan Graham, who is out for around nine weeks with a broken finger.
“We’ve been decimated by injuries, that’s been our biggest problem,” he explained.
“I’ve not been in a position to get my first team out at any point this season.”
Rendall, who re-joined the club as manager in the summer after leaving in 2022 due to work commitments, says his team have been unlucky in certain games and should be higher up the NAFL 1C table.
“If you watch a lot of the games we’ve played this season, for 60 or 70 minutes we’ve been leading and have been the better team.
“Bar the game where Saintfield beat us 7-0 in the Border Cup, which was a poor display on our part, we’ve been in control for the majority of each of the other games we’ve played.
“Realistically we should be nine points better off, and that’s just based on the last few league games, cup games I don’t really focus on.”
In the full story Kyle Rendall explains one of the aspects of how Ballynahinch play that has held them back and what he wants to do to address it.
