Kelly eyes chance with Sky Blues on return from States

Mark Kelly, pictured here during his time on a football scholarship in America, is hoping to make an impression at Ballymena United.

Thankfully for Ballymena United, Mark Kelly had no such reservations as he bids to carve out a career in the Irish League.

The 23-year-old’s inclusion in Saturday’s matchday squad against Coleraine brought many questions of ‘who?’ from United supporters, a large proportion of whom had been unaware of the striker’s existence at the Showgrounds!

The Antrim man joined the club in January after completing a scholarship in Denver, Colorado, and had made a number of appearances in David Dorrian’s reserve team.

And Kelly, who had spells with Institute and Chimney Corner earlier in his career, was given his opportunity from the bench as United searched for an equaliser.

Kelly actually played a part in that goal as he blocked a clearance which led to the ball falling to David Cushley who was brought down for a penalty.

“I was in America for 18 months, playing under an ex-Ballymena United player in Tony McCall.

“I actually met Tony for lunch on Saturday and he came to watch the match.

“With Darren Boyce not able to play, I got a chance on the bench and was lucky enough to come on.

“Glenn and the coaching staff told me when I was coming on just to make it uncomfortable for defenders, to close down and just put myself about a bit.

“Luckily I won a flick-on, then closed down a clearance and we got a penalty to get us back into the game.

“It was a great game to make my debut in. I would have come and watched Ballymena the odd time and a lot of my friends are from Ballymena so I would spend a lot of nights here after training over visiting friends.

“It was really good to come in and get to play in such a big game.

“It’s just a question of coming back to training on Tuesday night, getting the head down and trying to make another good impression and hopefully get another chance,” added Mark, who has good memories of the Showgrounds, having scored the only goal as St Louis Grammar School won the Northern Ireland Schools’ Cup at the Warden Street venue in 2007.

The striker’s cameo role on Saturday drew praise from United manager Glenn Ferguson.

“Mark showed in the space of about 10 or 12 minutes how an Irish League centre forward should play - back to goal, bringing people into play, being strong and aggressive.

“He was coming home following a scholarship in America and Tony McCall spoke to Joe (United’s Youth Development Officer) and recommended him to come.

“He has been training with us since before Christmas and he said he wanted to sign and have a go.

He probably didn’t think he would get his chance as early as this but there’s no point us putting another established player on the bench - we needed another centre forward on Saturday so we put him in,” added Ferguson.