Ballymena United 1
Carrick Rangers 2
League (NIFL Premiership)

Match Report

A flat Ballymena United struggled for the majority of the day in a 2-1 defeat to 10-man Carrick Rangers at The Showgrounds on Saturday afternoon.

Two weeks on from United's last outing in the win over Cliftonville, Jim Ervin made just the single change to the starting side, as Ben Kennedy returned from suspension to replace Alex Gawne.

Despite no issues with a waterlogged pitch like a week ago, The Showgrounds surface was still an incredibly wet one with the recent rain and it helped to create a low in quality opening half as the players struggled to get to grips with the turf. Early on a slip at the back post allowed the ball to fall to Daithi McCallion, but after the centre half brought the ball down, he curled an effort well over.

That early opening threatened to be as good as it got for the home side as the half went on, with the Gers beginning to look the more likely of two unlikely looking sides. Paul Heatley tested Sean O'Neill with a low, bending shot that United's skipper parried out, before Stephen O'Donnell blocked the rebound. With the lack of threat coming from the Braidmen in the final third, a Carrick mistake looked like one of Ballymena's only ways of getting in and when exactly that happened it almost saw the hosts go ahead. The away side were playing some risky passing football in their own box and when it went wrong the ball fell to Calvin McCurry who moved it on to Oisin Devlin, but his curling attempt was blocked on the line by Luke McCullough.

The half was somewhat struggling it's way to the break, not helped by play constantly being broken up by fair use of Jamie Robinson's whistle, but late on a bit of a flurry from Carrick saw O'Neill save well again to deny Heatley once more, before O'Donnell again blocked at close range after Ballymena failed to clear their lines from a corner, as a lacklustre and yellow card laden half ended level.

The second half already had more action four minutes in than the first had managed to generate, but it wasn't welcome action for the Sky Blues as the visitors broke the deadlock on forty-nine minutes. It was a really poor one to concede from Ballymena's point of view as Nedas Maciulaitis walked his way into the box from the left wing past a number of sky blue bodies, before sliding the ball across for Danny Gibson to easily tap home.

Shortly after the opener Jim Ervin made a triple change to try and spark United into life, as Johnny McMurray, Sean Brown and Alex Gawne were all introduced. The changes did seem to lift the home side, who finally looked to be gaining some sort of control and presence higher up the pitch. A lofted ball over from Josh Carson was misread by McCullough which allowed McMurray to get to it, but he poked wide what was a very difficult chance.

On sixty-four minutes, the Braidmen were level from a set piece. A foul down the left allowed Carson to deliver a pinpoint ball to the back stick which McCallion met and after the ball fell back to him, he prodded home at the second attempt with his first goal for the club.

The hope was the goal would kick Ballymena on into the ascendancy, but just seven minutes later Carrick were back in front through Maciulaitis. There didn't look to be too much danger when a ball was slid into the forward with his back to goal outside the box, but he produced a fine spin on McCallion before rocketing home into the top corner for 2-1.

A couple of minutes after falling behind for a second time, Ballymena had strong appeals for a penalty turned down when they felt the ball struck the arm of Ben Buchanan-Rolleston, but two minutes after that appeals for handball were listened to when Ross Glendinning left his box and handled a shot from McCurry, resulting in a red card for Carrick's 'keeper.

That gave Ballymena fifteen minutes to try and make a man advantage count, but in truth it was a difficult watch as they never looked close to threatening the now in goal Ben McCauley. With five to go, Kym Nelson was thrown on up front to try and add presence, but the hosts could do nothing to get going in the key areas of the pitch. 2-1 it finished, in what was a disappointing performance lacking urgency and decent decision making all round from United, who now slip into the bottom half on a day to forget.

Match report written by Philip McPeake (www.ballymenaunitedfc.com)