Hi °C | Lo °C There was something of a rarity at the Ballymena Showgrounds on Saturday.
No, not another shambolic display of defending by the home side - that's commonplace these days - rather a striker turning his back on the chance to zip up the match ball in his holdall.
All Gary Hamilton was carrying afterwards was his boots and three points for Glentoran wrapped up in embarrassingly easy fashion against Ballymena United.
Most onlookers were puzzled that Hamilton wasn't celebrating a hat-trick, his 10th minute free-kick that sailed past a static defence and into the net looking like the first of his three goals.
It turns out though that Rory Hamill claimed the faintest of touches, although TV pictures shed little light on proceedings, but it wasn't long before he added to his tally for the season.
A minute after the restart, Paul Murphy's could only palm the ball up in the air from Kyle Neill's corner and there was Hamilton to nod home.
On 71 minutes he made it double figures for the season, Thomas Wray giving the ball straight to Neill and in the blink of an eye he raced to the byline and whipped over an inch-perfect cross for Hamilton to powerfully head home.
A miserable day for the home side and their ever-dwindling supporters was complete when Gary Haveron's woeful back header gave Michael Halliday the chance to beat Murphy to the ball and from an acute angle rolled home a fourth.
Hamilton was more than happy with his day's work, insisting that team glory was much more important that individual awards.
"As far as I could see I think he got a touch on it, although I'm not definite, but he came over and celebrated with me, so that made my mind up," he explained.
" It doesn't matter to me who scores the goals, whether it was me or Rory, and it's nice for Rory that he's now got two."
Every little helps for the Glens as they try to wrestle the title from Linfield, and it has been a common gripe that too much of the scoring burden has been placed on Hamilton's shoulders.
However, he is delighted that goals are starting to flow from all areas of the pitch.
"This year we've got Daryl Fordyce and David Scullion, two attacking midfielders who can score goals," he added.
"Scully oozes class, I think everybody can see that, and maybe he's not involved for the 90 minutes, but he's got that class that can turn the game in a couple of minutes. There's never been pressure on me to score goals. I just go out and play my game and enjoy my football."
What Tommy Wright would give to enjoy his football at the moment, the United boss suffering another infuriating day in the dug-out.
As good as the Glens were, the Braidmen were simply atrocious but with Crusaders to come in the Co Antrim Shield, there is no time to feel sorry for themselves.
"We have to look at it and reflect on it over the weekend. We have a match on Monday night and we're fortunate that we've got a game in the cup semi-final on Wednesday night," he said.
"They shouldn't need any lifting for that, but if they do they shouldn't be playing football.
"We had seven players missing today, but that's not an excuse because we have a strong squad and I thought the team we put out was a strong one. People make mistakes, but we make too many bad mistakes. I would say if you look at the goals we've conceded this year, we're into double figures in howlers.
"Some of our players just lack concentration. I think they've got ability, but one of them mentioned in the dressing room about the ability not to make mistakes is a skill in itself.
"I'm not going to name the individuals who made the mistakes. We're in it as a team and it's up to them to respond to that."
