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THE great escape wouldn't even come close to what Nigel Best and his Ballymena United side achieved in the 1999/2000 season. Ballymena United lay bottom of the Irish League on the final day of the season, however a 2-0 win over Portadown meant that the Sky Blues miraculously climbed two places to avoid both of the relegation places and retain their place in the top flight of football in Northern Ireland. Nigel Best was brought in to replace Alan Fraser, but on a shoe-string budget, Ballymena struggled badly and were never really out of the relegation dog-fight. They claimed a club record 16 league draws, but lacked the firepower to compete for more points. The Irish Cup seen a quarter-final exit to bitter rivals, Coleraine, after having defeated Loughgall and Bessbrook United in the previous rounds. There was also an exit in the same round in the Gold Cup, this time to Linfield. In both the League Cup and the County Antrim Shield, the Braidmen were dumped out in the First Round by Portadown and Bangor, respectively. Best relied heavily on the goals of Glenn Hunter, who almost single handledly kept United up as he scored 23 of Ballymena's 54 goals... almost half of all Ballymena's goals! He unsurprisingly finished top goalscorer, 20 of which were in the League campaign.
Click for more information... Full list of Fixtures and Results for 1999/2000 Full list of Player Appearances Full list of Goalscorers Final Smirnoff Irish League Premier Division table Season Records Final League Position - 8th (from 10) Total games played - 43
Biggest home win - 2-0 v. Glenavon - 08-Jan-00 (League)
Biggest home defeat - 0-3 v. Glenavon - 09-Oct-99 (League)
Total players used - 29
Leading goalscorer (all competitions) - Glenn Hunter (23 goals)
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