10.15am 2 March 2024
Ballymena Saturday Morning League, Division Two
Cullybackey Blues 2 Randalstown 4 (att 18)
Another early morning flight into Belfast International Airport, from where it's a fairly easy task, in a hire car, to reach a game in the Ballymena Saturday Morning League.
Ahead of this I had four venues left to visit in the three division league. Despite a reduced fixture list there were games on all of them.
The other three are all multi-pitch venues in Ballymena itself, each used by more than one club. But Cullybackey Blues are one of the league's village teams, and with a home ground of their own.
Tobar Park is an enclosed pitch behind a community centre building that contains the changing rooms. The playing area is enclosed by a post and rail barrier and there's a pair of dugouts. There are even floodlights although, assuming they work, they'd only be suitable for training.
Cullybackey made the brighter start and it didn't take them long to score the opening goal. But Randalstown got themselves back into the game, and a neat finish on the end of a long ball was a deserved equaliser.
The visitors are bottom of the division, but that may be a false position as they have games in hand over those, including Cullybackey, who are just above them. Having drawn level the game began to swing in their favour.
They took a 2-1 lead into half time, and that became 3-1 in the second half. After the third goal Randalstown's most vocal player warned his teammates that Cullybackey weren't beaten and would keep going to the end.
He was correct. A spell of sustained pressure resulted in a goal for 2-3, and at that stage a Cullybackey equaliser looked likely. But instead Randalstown hit them on the break for a decisive fourth goal, rounding off a great game for the neutral.
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