"I think the game was over after four minutes," Wright admitted.

"Against any team you have to work hard, and that's even more so against a team of Linfield's calibre, but our work-rate and desire was nowhere near enough."

One of the biggest crowds of the season gathered a the Showgrounds, as the Braidmen hoped to cause a shock against title-chasing Linfield, as the home side looked to get back into the elusive fourth place in the league table.

Those hopes were as good as gone in only the fifth minute when former Ballymena midfielder Oran Kearney, broke free to open the scoring.

Glenn Ferguson held of the challenge of United debutant Dean Pooley before releasing Oran Kearney, who ghosted through the static home defence before placing his shot well beyond Paul Murphy in the Sky Blues’ goal.

It was almost constant Linfield pressure for the rest of the half, as Tommy Wright’s poor Braid side struggled to compete with the reigning league champions. Peter Thompson’s header struck the post on ten minutes.

Peter Thompson had another good chance to increase the lead on 36 minutes when he failed to finish Glenn Ferguson’s flick on, however he forced a good save out of Murphy.

Ballymena United’s first and only chance of the half came with five minutes of the half remaining, when former Linfield winger, Stuart King, seen his shot well saved by Alan Mannus, who had been a virtual spectator in the first half.

After the interval, the home side enjoyed their best spell of the game as they managed to create a handful of opportunities for an equaliser – but found Northern Ireland international, Mannus, in rock-solid form.

Garth Scates found himself going agonisingly close as United with one in attack were left to rue their missed chances, which proved very limited in number.

With 20 minutes left, the Windsor Blues doubled their lead when Oran Kearney curled a low free-kick around the ill-prepared Ballymena wall and past the helpless Murphy.

Tommy Wright must have thought his side had pulled one back when Simon Kelly towered above the visiting defenders to head home at the near post, but his goal was ruled out for infringement.

On 88 minutes with the game petering out, Linfield substitute Tim Mouncey found himself unmarked at the far post to complete the simple task of heading home Damien Curran’s corner to put Linfield three goals to the good.

Deep into injury time a dangerous backpass from Pooley was chased down by Peter Thompson who forced a mistake out of Murphy and slotted home the loose ball into the empty net.

Ballymena United boss wasn't best pleased about his team's performance.

"Linfield worked harder all over the pitch and deservedly won. They could have been more up in the first half. Then in the second half we started a lot more brightly but gave away, as we have been doing in recent weeks, bad goals.

"The first goal was a bad one to give away so early, the second was organisation of the wall - that's down to the goalkeeper and Simon Kelly who are meant to organise that.

"At 2-0 we had a perfectly good goal disallowed which would have made it 2-1 – not that we would have deserved to be only one goal behind but it might have changed the course of the game a bit.

"When Kevin Kelbie didn't pick up Tim Mouncey for the third goal, the attitude went and the fourth goal, the goalkeeper and centre-half managed to mix it up.