Ballymena United2–2Glenavon

GLENAVON suffered stoppage time agony at The Showgrounds as Ballymena grabbed a late equaliser to stretch their unbeaten run into double figures.

The visitors created perhaps the first serious effort of the game on 26 minutes after United 'keeper Dwayne Nelson was forced to grab the ball at the second attempt to deny Mark Miskimmin.

Then, on 37 minutes, Brian McCaul sliced the ball wide after being picked out by Gary Hamilton while, a couple of minutes after that, Gavin Taggart cleared the ball off the line after Nelson almost punched a Neill corner into his own net.

But the deadlock was broken three minutes after the break when former Glenavon striker James Costello made the most of some sloppy defending to fire past Chris Coleman from an Alan Davidson pass.

Glenavon might have levelled on 55 minutes when Ciaran Doherty met a Hamilton cross only for the ball to drift wide of the target.

United might have doubled their advantage on 63 minutes when Davidson ran onto a Taggart ball to beat Coleman only for Brendan Shannon to clear off the line.

The Lurgan Blues levelled on 75 minutes after McCaul got on the end of a Hamilton through ball to tap home after Johnny Taylor failed to clear.

And five minutes later Glenavon moved in front after substitute Andrew Mitchell got his head to the ball from point blank range following a Doherty knock on from a Hamilton corner.

However, just as the visitors thought they secured the points to safeguard their top flight survival, Taylor popped up in the second minute of stoppage time to nod the ball past Coleman from a Rory Carson corner.