The Sky Blues visited Holm Park buoyed by their first win in six against Portadown, visited the Orchard County in search of another three points to get their season back on track with.

They didn't take long to get going as Kevin Kelbie's header within the first 60 seconds, had to be tipped over the bar by former Ballymena custodian, Stuart Addis.

Conor Forker forced Paul Murphy into a smart save with a quarter of an hour gone, but it was the visitors who took the lead soon after.

On 24 minutes, Mark Turkington was adjudged to have handled Gary Haveron's header by referee Ken Ginnett and he pointed to the penalty spot.

Davitt Walsh confidently stepped up, and despite slightly mis-hitting hit spot kick, he sent Addis the wrong way for his eighth goal of the season. Of the eight this was the Donegal man's third penalty.

United began to dominate proceedings and came close to grabbing a second goal when Mark Picking seen his effort saved. This was the last action Picking seen before going off injured with a suspected torn calf muscle, he was replaced with Stephen Lowry on the half-hour.

Armagh City's Sean Cleary and Gary Fitzpatrick both had half-chances as the home side tried to fight back before the break without avail.

Ballymena continued to press in the second half, as they first had a shot cleared off the line and then Gary Haveron's bicycle kick sailed just over the crossbar.

The Sky Blues doubled their lead on 55 minutes though. A careless pass from Cleary was intercepted by Stephen Lowry. The Limavady midfielder darted forward the length of the Armagh half, beating one defender before firing past Addis for his first competitive goal for the Braidmen.

Despite controlling the game comfortably for long periods, the final period was a test of United's character as Armagh pulled a goal back with one minute of normal time remaining.

Simon Kelly handled the ball in his own penalty area, and for the second time Ginnett pointed to the spot. Johnny McSorley fired home to set up a tense finish.

City threw everything they had at the Skies, but United held out for another morale boosting win that takes the Braidsiders up to ninth in the table.

Manager Wright, was happy with the three points, "We started well and then got sucked into a long-ball game.

"I believe we fully deserved to win the match and it would have been an injustice if Armagh had got something out of it."

Teams:

ARMAGH CITY	BALLYMENA UNITED
1: ADDIS, Stuart	1: MURPHY, Paul
2: CULLEN, Liam	2: CALLAGHAN, Aaron
3: TURKINGTON, Mark	3: McCLEAN, Craig
4: FITZPATRICK, Gary	4: HAVERON, Gary
5: GRACEY, Mark	5: WATSON, Albert (c)
6: HAWTHORNE, David	6: KELLY, Simon
7: CLEARY, Sean	7: PICKING, Mark
8: FITZPATRICK, Terry	8: SCATES, Garth
9: FORKER, Conor	10: KELBIE, Kevin
10: CONEY, Shane	11: MELAUGH, Gavin
11: HYNDES, Stephen	17: WALSH, Davitt
Substitutes	-
12: SLATER, James	9: FITZGERALD, Darren
Replaced Conor Forker (85 mins)	Replaced Davitt Walsh (80 mins)
14: McSORLEY, Johnny	12: McNEILL, Paul
Replaced Sean Cleary (59 mins)	Not Used
15: McCANN, Austin	14: PATRICK, Lee
Replaced David Hawthorne (80 mins)	Not Used
16: McGERRIGAN, Shea	15: LOWRY, Stephen
Not Used	Replaced Mark Picking (30 mins)
17: O'NEILL,	16: WRAY, Thomas
Not Used	Not Used
Yellow Cards:	-
Unknown	Unknown
Red Cards:	-
None	None