The opening goal arrived on 41 minutes when a Ricky Gillies free-kick from the right was headed on at the near post by Iain Cashmore and although Paul Murphy got his hands to the ball he couldn't prevent it creeping in.

The Blues almost grabbed a second on 62 minutes. Aaron Callaghan was caught in possession on the edge of the area by Gregory Tade and as he burst into the danger zone he was upended by Albert Watson.

From the resultant penalty Stephen Bonnar could only direct the ball onto an upright before strolling up to roll home the rebound. However because no other player touched the ball the referee correctly disallowed the goal and duly awarded United a free-kick.

The second eventually did arrive on 76 minutes after a Jamie Cochrane chip against the underside of the bar was poked home by Tade.

And Cochrane added a third a couple of minutes later when Tade repaid the favour with a ball across the face of goal which was tapped in virtually point blank range.

Ballymena crafted a late consolation four minutes from time when Paul Brown set uo Stephen Lowry to slip the ball home.

Speaking afterwards Tommy Wright said, "I felt our first half performance was ok and I was pleased defensively.

"But Stranraer worked harder in the second half while we made some poor decisions. I'm not too despondant though. This was their fifth pre-season game and only our second.

"We have some tough games coming up but I'm confident we will see a marked improvement."

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