Cliftonville make the trip to Ballymena Showgrounds on Saturday for the Premiership clash with home team Ballymena United.
Our tips, poll and stats for Ballymena United v Cliftonville can all be found here - plus the latest match odds.
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Form Guide
Ballymena United
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Ballymena United will be wanting a better result here following the 1-3 Premiership losing effort in their last game against Loughgall.
The only player to score from Ballymena United was Colin Coates (37'). Nathaniel Ferris (54', 58') and Andrew Hoey (66') scored for Loughgall.
A common aspect of recent Ballymena United games is the number of results with a nil in them.
Taking their previous 6 matches before this one, in 5 of them a bet on "Both Teams to Score" would have lost.
Heading into this contest, Ballymena United haven’t won at home in the past 4 league matches. Their fans aren't happy.
Cliftonville
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Cliftonville head into the meeting following a 0-3 Premiership win vs Crusaders in their previous fixture.
For Cliftonville, goals were scored by Chris Gallagher (18'), Rory Hale (43') and Ben Wilson (55').
Jim Magilton's Cliftonville have slotted home a total of 9 times throughout their latest 6 matches. The total of goals that have been scored against them during those matches equals 7.
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Head to head
A review of their prior head to head meetings stretching back to 23/10/2021 tells us that Ballymena United have won 2 of these & Cliftonville 3, with the tally of drawn games being 1.
18 goals were yielded between them in these games, with 8 from Sky Blues and 10 belonging to The Reds. That is an average goals per game value of 3.
The last league encounter between these clubs was Premiership match day 26 on 28/01/2023 when the final score was Cliftonville 4-0 Ballymena United.
The referee was Jamie Robinson.
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Team News: Ballymena United
The Ballymena United boss Jim Ervin doesn’t have any fitness concerns whatsoever ahead of this clash thanks to a fully injury-free squad available for selection. Colin Coates cannot play in this game through suspension.
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Team News: Cliftonville
Cliftonville manager Jim Magilton has to contend with a number of unavailable players. Stephen Mallon (Surgery) and Ronan Hale (Medial Collateral Ligament Injury) are names that won’t be on the team sheet.
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Prediction
In our view, Ballymena United should have enough to breach the defence of this Cliftonville outfit, however a single goal is unlikely to be as many as they’ll concede.
Therefore, we’re predicting a narrow 1-2 win for Cliftonville after the 90. It should be a decent one.
Our expert partners are tipping over 1.5 goals for this match. Check out their VIP predictions here.
Andre Moura,
01:01 19/09/2023
🏟️ Team Focus:
Ballymena United
Formed: 1928
Stadium: Ballymena Showgrounds (3,824)
Chairman: Matthew Armstrong
Manager: Jim Ervin
Competitions: Premiership position 12