Ballymena United1–0Glentoran

Late heroics from Ben Kennedy for the second week running helped Ballymena United make it four wins in a row with a deserved 1-0 win over ten man Glentoran at The Ballymena Showgrounds on Saturday.

After stunning Larne at Inver Park in the sunshine last Saturday, Jim Ervin unsurprisingly kept the same XI for the visit of Glentoran to a dreary Warden Street, but there were welcome spots on the bench for Stephen O'Donnell and Joe Moore, with the latter in a competitive squad for the first time since his summer move.

Hot off three straight wins in all competitions and taking on an indifferent Glens side, United would've no doubt felt there could be something in this for them and the first half was an even, low in chances, half. Ballymena started brightly and inside six minutes had penalty appeals turned down. Calvin McCurry rounded Frankie Hvid before a slip by Marcus Kane saw him take McCurry out on his way down, but it was deemed nothing but accidental. The next chance also came the hosts way, as the inform man Ben Kennedy tried to catch Daniel Gyollai out with a first time effort from distance, but the Hungarian made a good save, with Johnny McMurray just unable to meet the rebound with his head.

Outside of those openings, it was the Glens who were probably just shading it in terms of possession and attacks, but ultimately there was little end product. Any chance of a goal looked like it could come from a corner, not only because it's been an achilles heel for Ballymena in recent seasons, but mainly due to the sheer volume of them that Glentoran received in the first half, but it was a sky blue head that met almost every single one of them. At the very end of the half, a Glentoran man finally won a flick on off one of their many corners and it nearly led to a goal. The header fell to Patrick McClean alone at the back post, but his close range effort was saved on the line by Sean O'Neill, despite Glentoran's protests that it had crossed the line, as a competitive, virtually chanceless half ended predictably goalless.

Much like in Larne last week, a quiet first half didn't mean a poor Braidmen performance. It was the opposite in fact, as a really structured sky blue unit restricted their full-time opponents to little, with the question now if United could start to threaten in the Glens box second half, and the answer was that they could. It would take time though, as Declan Devine's side created a couple of early second half openings. First, Dylan Connolly pounced on a misplaced pass at the back and from distance forced O'Neill into a parried save back into the box which fell to half time substitute Jay Donnelly, but he blasted the rebound well over. A few minutes later, Glentoran worked their way round Ballymena down the left leading to left back Danny Amos having a go, but his shot flew well wide.

After the opening ten minutes, United began to get a real good grip on proceedings as they started to turn the screw on the visitors. Johnny McMurray had ran non-stop all afternoon and finally got a hattrick of chances to add a goal to his performance, but he was unable to do so. First, the forward turned on the edge of the box and sent a floating effort goalwards that had Gyollai scrambling across his goal, but it flew just wide. A couple of minutes later on the hour mark, McMurray delightfully took down a long through ball out of the sky on his chest and tried an early effort from quite a bit out, but he failed to connect with the shot as it dribbled wide. The third of McMurray's quickfire openings was the best one when he got in between the Glentoran defenders to latch onto a through ball, but he could only slam his effort straight at Gyollai.

With sixteen minutes to go and Ballymena looking the most likely to break the deadlock, their chances of doing so were increased when a game that was threatening to come to the boil throughout the half did so as Glentoran were reduced to ten men. Captain Marcus Kane had been booked in the first half and when he brought down Kennedy right in front of the benches, he eventually received his marching orders. The sending off didn't please those in the away dug out, and it prompted a fair bit of aggro involving mainly the backroom teams more than the players, which took a second or two to calm down.

Now a man up and in the ascendancy as it was anyway, Ballymena had to make sure they fixed another achilles heel of struggling against ten men, and straight away they almost led. Donal Rocks was found from the free kick and his ball into the box saw a number of men in sky blue try but fail to convert in a game of extended pinball, with Daithí McCallion, Kym Nelson and Kennedy all seeing shots blocked in front of a home crowd now in full voice. Inside the final ten minutes a couple of McCurry crosses from the left gave Glentoran more problems. His first cross, a deep one to the back stick, was headed back across goal by McMurray to Kennedy, who headed straight at Gyollai, before the shot stopper had to tip a cross onto his own crossbar.

As the game approached ninety minutes and looked set to end in a lively and enjoyable draw, a couple of incidents at both ends led to a grandstand finish. For the visitors, a mistake at the back from the otherwise flawless Rocks almost let them in for a winner, but Connolly's cut back found Charlie Lindsay whose shot was blocked, before Donnelly fired just over.

Then, from the goal kick, Ballymena provided more match winning late drama. O'Neill's long kick was flicked on by sub Ethan Devine, sublime in the air again, and both the ball and Ben Kennedy went in through the Glentoran back line to put the league's top scorer in, and he coolly as ever slotted past Gyollai to send United's fans mad once more in recent weeks.

Three minutes of added time were comfortable work for Ervin's men against a below par Glentoran team who never really looked like threatening, but Ballymena would've been a match for anyone in what was another fantastic performance from front to back, to make it three wins in a row in the league, with momentum and a feel good factor building by the game.