Jonathan Busby admits Abbey Villa are relishing the role of king-maker after a quirk of the fixture list landed them right in the thick of the promotion and relegation battles.
On Saturday past, the Millisle outfit threw a spanner in Comber’s 1A coronation plans, fighting back from 1-0 down to seal the points courtesy of an Adam Arthurs winner.
The league leaders’ 3-2 defeat could have been much worse, costing them even the chance to go up, but for Dromara’s 5-3 reverse at Malachians which ended their own top two hopes.
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That result means Comber are guaranteed promotion at least, leaving Kilmore with the chance to seal the title and their own return to the Premier Division should they succeed where Comber failed and win at Abbey Villa in their last game of the season at the end of the month.
But of course, it’s not just Comber and Kilmore whose fates are entwined with Abbey Villa, but Rosario too. Sitting second but having completed their league programme weeks ago, Barry Baggley and co with be more than interested spectators at Millisle in a few weeks’ time.
And in between all that, lowly Grove need a result in their concluding game to leapfrog Dunmurry Rec and Newcastle into safety. And their last opponents of the season? Abbey Villa this Thursday night.
Safe to say, then, that Busby’s phone has been ringing off the hook.
“I think there was a lot of disappointment (among Comber),” said Busby.
“I think they expected to seal the deal at Grove, and then they came with a big support yesterday and, probably with the way our season has panned out, they thought they’d get it wrapped up yesterday, but we were well up for it.
“Now I know they are still promoted with Dromara blowing up, but I think we took a bit of the wind out of their sails, which was nice for us.
“The position we’re in, we could be playing games just for the sake of playing them, but every game, even going back to Newcastle last week (a 2-1 win for Villa), who were fighting to make themselves mathematically safe.
“Now the Dromara game next week has fallen by the wayside but it could have meant something too, and then the last game of the season is against
Kilmore.
“So to have a say in both ends of the table... and it’s funny over the last week or so, how many people have got in touch to say you could do us a favour.
“I’ve spoken to Barry a couple of times, I speak to him anyway, he’s become someone I would talk to quite regularly, and they are sitting waiting, Kilmore have been flying but if we put a spanner in the works, Rosario could go up.”
As their last two wins against teams playing for something have proven, while Abbey Villa have nothing to aim for themselves, they will be going full steam for the result, not just for sporting integrity reasons, but for their own pride and determination to do right by their own club.
“For Kilmore, the same as yesterday, our thinking was we don’t want anyone to win the league at our ground, especially a derby rival,” added Busby.
“But inadvertently, if we beat Kilmore in the last game of the season, we would hand the title to Comber, so here, it’s good to have an exciting end to the season.
“There are a lot of permutations and it’s nice to be involved, it’s certainly given our boys a bit of motivation.”
On their own season, after a bright start, Villa lost their way to slide out of contention for a promotion place.
But Busby insists he’s been pleased overall with how they’ve coped in challenging circumstances.
“Like many teams, with Covid hitting, and we had some bad injuries too, it just hasn’t panned out the way we hoped,” he said.
“We started off the season well, went far in some cups and still had some highlights, but ultimately, our league form hasn’t been good enough, that’s football, but I honestly can’t commend the boys enough.
“With the setbacks we’ve had, they’ve just got on with it, and it’s actually probably the proudest I’ve been of a group of players even though it hasn’t gone the way we wanted.”
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