Ferguson’s area of expertise as a player giving him biggest headache as manager

If we go back to Tommy Wright’s time, the problem which plagued Wright – one of this country’s finest international goalkeepers – more than any other was finding a reliable player between the posts.

Fast forward to Roy Walker’s time where Walker and his assistant Terry Moore, two accomplished Irish League defenders – and in Moore’s case a Canadian international , who played in the World Cup finals – simply could not halt the flow of goals conceded and defensive chaos which typified the latter part of their tenure.

Now Glenn Ferguson, the best Irish League striker of his generation, is the latest to find that the position giving him most grief as a manager is the very one in which he excelled as a player.

You can see the manager almost wince when the ‘s’ word – striker – is mentioned. No-one is more acutely aware of the biggest shortcoming in his otherwise encouraging team than Ferguson himself.

I read comments on an internet forum the other day which, and I’m paraphrasing here, gave the impression that ‘sure he had all summer to get one’. As with many things in life, it’s easier said than done.

No matter what level of football you follow, strikers will always be the players who have more kudos than any other. They are the matchwinner, the glory-grabbers...it’s why a generation of kids will grow up wanting to be the next Wayne Rooney, rather than a right-back or a holding midfield player.

It’s also the reason why any club, when they do possess such an asset, they will move heaven and earth to hold onto it, with longer contracts and more money than players in other positions might earn.

In short, the options open to Ferguson in the summer were limited to say the least. The one thing he didn’t do was go out and sign some average striker, simply for the sake of it or to appease fans. He’s watching and waiting for someone who will improve the team, while fitting into the budget parameters that exist.

When that will be isn’t so clear – after all, what team seriously gets rid of their better players in a January transfer window – but the lack of a striker arriving at Ballymena hasn’t been for the want of trying.

The analogy Ferguson used after Saturday’s match was that he’s now not so much wearing glasses in the search for a frontman as using binoculars!

In the meantime, Ballymena will continue to try to find goals from whatever source – Glenavon defender Sean McCashin’s unfortunate intervention on Saturday means that ‘own goals’ is now on the coat-tails of United’s leading scorers this term!

* Follow Ballymena Times Sports Editor Stephen Alexander on Twitter (@Stephen_Bmena)