Ballymena United 2
Carrick Rangers 0
League (NIFL Premiership)

Match Report

BALLYMENA United put Tuesday night's defeat behind them with a hard fought 2-0 win over Carrick Rangers.

A minutes silence was held prior to kick off to mark Armistice Day and was impeccably served by both sets of fans.

Carrick started the brighter, with Ross Glendinning forced into two early saves to deny first Tiaran McNicholl inside the first minute, then TJ Murray two minutes later.

Ballymena nearly took the lead on 9 minutes after a thumping Tony Kane volley from the edge of the box went inches over the Carrick bar. Ballymena were forced into an early substitution as Johnny Flynn was unable to continue after picking up an injury, and was replaced by Eoin Kane.

United's best move of a quiet first half came after 20 minutes when a flowing attack couldn't quite be finished off by an audacious back heel attempt by Willie Faulkner. Ballymena managed another chance minutes before half time. A mistake by United old boy Paddy McNally allowed an injury hampered Johnny McMurray in but he was thwarted by a Brian Neeson double save.

The second half really struggled to get going until late on. Early on, Cathair Friel had a go from outside the box but his shot went high and wide. From then, both teams looked to try and create something but couldn't find many chances due to some good defending and poor passages of play. Faulkner tried to make something happen with a long range effort, but it glided well wide of Neeson's goal.

With 15 minutes to go, the home side finally started to look dangerous going forward. Substitute Eoin Kane forced Neeson into a good save but United couldn't make anything of the corner. However, on 77 minutes, Ballymena made a corner count as the deadlock was eventually broken. Tony Kane whipped in a corner which was headed onto the post by Allan Jenkins, but luckily Kyle Owens was on hand to fire home from close range for his fourth of the season.

As Carrick pushed to find an equaliser, with pressure that wouldn't convert to clear cut chances, the Sky Blues killed the game off on 90 minutes through Faulkner. A long ball up found the gaps in the Carrick defence and was well controlled by the midfielder. Faulkner was able to keep his cool and dispatch the ball past Neeson, to finish off what was an unconvincing performance, but 3 points none the less.

Match report written by Phillip McPeake