Nathaniel Ferris' first goal for Glentoran not only provided the club with a timely boost ahead of Sunday's BetMcLean Cup final but also helped the striker's sleeping pattern.
The January recruit from Loughgall joked he had a few sleepless nights waiting for the first goal for his new club to arrive.
But Ferris put that to bed on Tuesday night as he scored the only goal of the game to secure a much-needed win over Ballymena United.
“It’s always good to get your first goal,” he said. “As a centre-forward, it’s always your dream. For the last three games I’ve been itching to do it.
“I’ve been going to bed and thinking about it; I haven’t been sleeping because of it. So, I was absolutely thrilled. It was a great time to get it.
“It was a true centre-forward's finish… a flash across the box and a reaction. It was unbelievable to see it hit the net. It won us the game which was more important, so I was delighted. At the end of the day, it was a very, very important three points.
“The win against Ballymena was also a little confidence booster going into to Sunday. We didn’t want to approach that game on the back of three defeats.
“So, it was massive. Although we didn’t make an issue of it going into the Ballymena match… we didn’t mention the cup final once, but we knew it was vital we ended the negative run.”
Ferris said the players "owed the fans" after last week's disappointing Irish Cup exit at the hands of Bnagor.
“We were really disappointed,” he said. “That’s Cup football… it was one of those ones it was set up for it.
“We should have been better on the night, so we owed the fans one. That’s why is was so important to get back to a winning track against Ballymena.
“Yes, we were hanging on a little bit at the end and it took a wonder save from big Dan (Gyollai) right on the whistle to get us over the line.
“He is a phenomenal goalkeeper and he had been doing that all season for us. With the clock ticking down, Ballymena were going to throw everything at us, they had nothing to lose.
“I thought we dealt with it really well, but we still had to rely on big Dan to bail us out. We were comfortable, but for some reason found ourselves holding on for the last five minutes or so.”
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