Fourth place United will hope to keep their remarkable run of results going against Institute on Saturday afternoon at the Warden Street Showgrounds.

The Sky Blues are now unbeaten since late October and have collected a massive 19 points from their last 21 available; moving into fourth on Tuesday night after the 2-0 win over Distillery.

Seven games undefeated now for Ballymena which includes six wins, as the Braidsiders hit the ground running going into the hectic Christmas period, and will be looking to now consolidate fourth position and even make ground on the top three sides, who seem to have broken away already at this early stage of the season.

Institute have had a difficult start to life back in the Carnegie Premier League, after running away with the First Division title last season. They currently sit in 14th place in the table – only three points off the bottom of the pile.

Manager Liam Beckett was dealt a blow when a number of key players in their promotion moved on, and has replaced them with talented but raw youngsters.

They have fought valiantly against the ‘bigger’ teams this season, but have no reward to show for their endeavour yet. The highlight so far has to be a fantastic 3-1 win over Crusaders at the Riverside Stadium last month. In their last outing they drew 1-1 with Armagh City.

Ballymena have a good record against the Drumahoe side in the League since the two sides first competed together in 2001; as the Braidmen have only lost two of the ten league meetings between the two sides.

The last fixture between the two sides came in April 2006, when a single goal from Kevin Kelbie condemned Institute to the relegation play-off on the final day of the season – they went on to lose the play-off to Donegal Celtic. The last fixture between the sides at Warden Street was the same season and the same result as Stuart King scored the only goal in December 2005.

Ballymena are undefeated in their last eight meetings against ‘Stute, the last defeat came back in September 2003 in the League Cup group stages when Ballymena, playing in Institute’s yellow away strip at Drumahoe, lost 3-2. United’s goals that day both came from the penalty spot with Kevin Ramsey and Shea Campbell getting one apiece.

Almost a clean bill of health for United manager Wright, but a welcome selection headache as to where he includes some of his more senior players who have returned from injury recently in Mark Picking, Davitt Walsh, Stuart King and Simon Kelly. As he is expected to stick with the same team that defeated Distillery for the visit of the Londonderry side.

Paul Brown will likely continue with the Reserves, whilst Aidan Watson remains the only absentee. In-form winger Stephen Lowry will come face-to-face with his brother, Phillip, this Saturday. Phillip is currently starring in the Institute midfield after signing from hometown club, Limavady United, in the summer.

Ex-Players

At Ballymena United, defender Thomas Wray is the only player to have previously played at Drumahoe for a living. He was one of the youngest captains at the Londonderry club after he returned from Leeds United in 2002. He signed for Ballymena in the summer from Dungannon but has found appearances hard to come by recently.

Ruari McClean is now in his second spell at Institute, after two injury plagued seasons at the Showgrounds. He made 22 appearances, including playing in both the Intertoto Cup ties against Odense, but after a horrendous injury against Larne, he has struggled to consistently play regularly.