They were last season's surprise package and Ballinamallard United, managed by Whitey Anderson, certainly won many friends with their attractive football. Their 6th placed finish in the Danske Bank Premiership was well deserved and expectations will be high for at least a repeat of last year's performance. Player wise, the 'Mallards' have lost Chris Curran to Cliftonville but have recruited Richard Lecky from Portadown although Lecky has yet to feature this season due to injury. Cathal Beacom is the other new player in the squad, returning to the club from Enniskillen Town.
The season started well for Ballinamallard Utd with a 1-0 win over Crusaders at Ferney Park however they lost by the same score last weekend against Dungannon Swifts.
In their debut season in the Premiership, Ballinamallard and Glentoran met 4 times with the Glens recording 3 wins and a draw. A mid-week trip to County Fermanagh in early September resulted in a 4-1 win for Glentoran. The teams went in level at the interval with goals from Waterworth & Stafford but in the second half the Glens had much the better of things with Jay Magee and Martin Murray putting us 3-1 up before a 4th was added by a 'Mallards' defender.
On December 1st Ballinamallard United visited the Oval for the first time. Early in the first half goals from Richard Clarke and David Howland put the Glens two up but although James McKenna pulled one back before the break there was no further scoring in the second half. A week after their Irish Cup semi-final victory over Portadown, Glentoran maintained their 4th position in the table with a comfortable 3-0 home win against this weekend's visitors. Richard Clarke once again opened the scoring and there were further goals in the second period from Martimn Murray and Andrew Waterworth. The final meeting between the two sides came after the split when both teams played out a 0-0 draw in mid-April.
Action from the 2-1 home victory on 1st December 2012 can be seen on BBC Sport NI HERE
Highlights from the 3-0 win at the Oval in March can be found on BBC Sport NI HERE