Ballymena United’s excellent summer recruitment continued with the signing of Ben Kennedy from Crusaders. The midfielder was transfer-listed by the Crues on Wednesday after failing to agree a new contract. This was not the first time this year that he had been made available for transfer after the club made it known they would listen to offers in January before he saw out the season in North Belfast.
The move came just hours after announcing the signing of former Celtic, Glentoran and Larne midfielder John Herron as Jim Ervin adds to his squad.
The Sky Blues finished eleventh last year and survived by the skin of their teeth after a last-gasp winner in their promotion/relegation playoff with Institute in May. They lost captain Steven McCullough to Portadown and centre half Scot Whiteside to Linfield while midfielder Dylan Boyle joined rivals Coleraine.
However, they have brought in four players from the Bannsiders with Jack O’Mahony, Aaron Jarvis, Josh Carson and former Coleraine captain Stephen O’Donnell all making the switch down the A26 to Warden Street.
Lisburn-born midfielder Kennedy joined the youth academy at Stevenage in 2013 and stayed with the Boro until 2020 when he swapped Broadhall Way for Seaview. He made over 150 appearances with Stevenage before joining Stephen Baxter’s charges where he won back-to-back Irish Cups in 2022 and 2023. The former Northern Ireland youth international becomes the Sky Blues’ ninth arrival of the summer window with two weeks until the new Sports Direct Premiership season begins.
Scottish midfielder Herron joins having left Larne and Irish League football in August 2022 after being pictured wearing a controversial t-shirt at a concert and has since had brief stints in Australia and Gibraltar. He still needs to serve a ten-match suspension as a result of that t-shirt so will be unavailable for the first couple of months of the season.
Ervin’s side have also brought in defenders Caolan Loughran and Danny Lafferty from Loughgall and Institute respectively and exciting attacker Joe Moore from Dungannon Swifts as they hope to put the specter of relegation well behind them this season.