Having spent the last two-and-a-half months working his way back to full fitness after suffering a hamstring injury in mid-February, Ballard was desperately hoping he would feature in the squad for the first leg of the semi-final at the CBS Arena.
But even though he had proven his fitness with a 30-minute substitute run-out against QPR on the final day of the regular Championship season, the centre-half readily admits that Chris Mepham and Luke O’Nien’s fine form meant he had resigned himself to the likelihood of being on the bench.
Would Le Bris really break up the centre-half partnership that had proved so effective for the majority of the season? The answer arrived last week when it became clear, via Le Bris’ training drills at the Academy of Light, that Ballard was being lined up play alongside O’Nien at Coventry.
“To be honest, I didn’t expect to be starting,” admitted the Northern Ireland international, whose injury misfortunes meant he only started 12 of Sunderland’s 46 league games during the regular season. “You know, I’ve been out for a long time.
“It’s been ten weeks since I last started a game, but I put in a lot of hard work in that time and the goal was to be fit and available for these games. But obviously, knowing in the back of my mind, I probably wasn’t going to play.
“So, to get the gaffer’s trust and he’s put me in, it’s a real confidence booster. And yeah, I was nervous going into this game, not having started for a while. I didn’t know how the body would hold up either. It was a tough game, but I really enjoyed it.”
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Ballard’s superb defensive display was a key factor in Sunderland’s victory on Friday night, with Le Bris’ tactics coming up trumps as the Black Cats successfully soaked up lengthy spells of Coventry pressure before hitting their opponents with a series of razor-sharp counter-attacks in the second half.
Playing alongside O’Nien, the 25-year-old dealt with everything Coventry’s players threw into the box, winning headers, making blocks and denying the pacey Brandon Thomas-Asante any space behind the Sunderland backline.
As a result, any pre-game fears about the Black Cats’ six-game winless run ahead of the play-offs or Sunderland’s historical struggles against Coventry were successfully allayed.
“I think it’s been obviously a tough run of form, and we’ve struggled here (at Coventry) in the past few years,” said Ballard. “Obviously, the club in general has struggled for the last, what was it, 40 years.
“I think the odds were probably against us, but we had a strict gameplan and we didn’t let our recent run of form affect anything. I feel like we came into this game full of confidence and the boys weren’t worried and had belief.”
For all that Friday was a hugely-positive night, though, the job is only half-done. Sunderland will start as strong favourites ahead of Tuesday’s decider, given that they will be defending a one-goal lead, but previous play-off campaigns have featured plenty of matches in which teams who have been unsuccessful in their home tie have managed to repair the damage in the away leg.
“I think there’s a fantastic prize at the end of the second game,” said Ballard. “We all want to be there at Wembley. So I don’t think that (taking anything for granted) will be an issue.
“The lads are getting up for it. There’s going to be a lot of pressure, a lot of nerves, but the lads have been there all season and put in some amazing performances. I’m sure we’ll be right up for the game.”
