The Sky Blues went down by a single goal to Dungannon Swifts on matchday three of the competition, and now face an uphill struggle of qualifying for the quarter finals for the first time in three years, as the Braidmen currently sit bottom of the four team group.

Albert Watson's automatic suspension after being sent-off against Glenavon meant a reshuffle in defence, with Gary Haveron captaining the side in Ballymena's first home game of the new campaign.

A fairly even first half at the Showgrounds saw United create the first chance after just five minutes, although Paul Brown's tame header was easily stopped by former Ballymena custodian, Dwayne Nelson.

Shea Campbell was lively in his return to Warden Street after his summer move to Dungannon Swifts from his hometown club, Armagh City. He fired a free-kick just wide after Sean McCabe was halted by Stuart King on the edge of the penalty area just after the twenty minute mark.

The best chance of the half fell to Swifts' midfielder Mark Magennis, who fired agonisingly wide after Shea Campbell had dispossessed the slacking Aaron Callaghan in the United defence.

Ballymena continued to press forward, but failed to register any meaningful attempts on goal, whilst Dungannon's attacks were predominately instigated by careless football from the home side.

The second half exploded into action, when Shea Campbell had another golden chance to break the deadlock as he intercepted a poor Craig McClean pass - and broke through but could only fire his strike straight at the capable Paul Murphy in the home goal.

Ballymena's best chance of the game fell to Garth Scates, as he rifled a Dungannon clearance back towards goal, which took a slight deflection of Aidan Watson, forcing Nelson to make a very quick change in direction to save the goal-bound effort.

Mark McAllister hit the side-netting for the visitors and United substitute Stephen Lowry, recently returned from the World Student Games in Thailand also firing wide of the mark.

Swifts boss Harry Fay brought on his new American signing for his second Irish League game and after being on the pitch for four minutes. Aidan Watson's clearance from a corner fell to the Washington born winger on the edge of the box and he took a touch before launching the ball into the top corner, leaving Murphy stranded.

Tommy Wright (pictured) told the Ballymena Times after the game, "It was a game which had nil-nil written over it because neither keeper was extended but we've been caught with a great goal although from our point of view, we should have done better with it."

"It was a great strike but I thought we had all the pressure second half. Most of their chances came from our poor play. "

"We didn't deserve to win it but I thought we had more pressure and the ball spent more time in their penalty box than ours. We put some great crosses but we had nobody on the end of them."

This was Ballymena United's first home defeat since December 2006, when United lost 3-2 to Coleraine. The Skies' next game will be the start of their County Antrim Shield campaign next Tuesday night against Orangefield OB.

Teams:

BALLYMENA UNITED	DUNGANNON SWIFTS
1: MURPHY, Paul	1: NELSON, Dwayne
2: CALLAGHAN, Aaron	: McCONKEY
3: McCLEAN, Craig	3: GALLAHER, JP
4: SCATES, Garth	4:
5: KELLY, Simon	5:
6: HAVERON, Gary (c)	6:
7: PICKING, Mark	7:
8: WATSON, Aidan	8:
9: BROWN, Paul	9:
10: FITZGERALD, Darren	10:
11: KING, Stuart	11:
Substitutes	-
12: PATRICK, Lee	12: HEGARTY
Replaced Craig McClean (83 mins)	Replaced McManus (70 mins)
14: WRAY, Thomas	14: FRIEL, Austin
Not Used	Replaced Paul Brown (78 mins)
15: REID, Randal	15: FITZPATRICK, Terry
Replaced Darren Fitzgerald (75 mins)	Replaced Darren Fitzgerald (71 mins)
16: LOWRY, Stephen	16: WALTON
Replaced Stuart King (64 mins)	Not Used
20: O'NEILL, Sean	17: CUNNINGHAM
Not Used	Replaced Mark Picking (76 mins)
Yellow Cards:	-
KING, Stuart (21 mins)	McCABE, Shane (23 mins)
WATSON, Aidan (42 mins)	CAMPBELL, Shea (90 mins)
PICKING, Mark (55 mins)	-
KELLY, Simon (73 mins)	-
SCATES, Garth (77 mins)	-
HAVERON, Gary (87 mins)	-
Red Cards:	-
None	None