United manager Tommy Wright made a number of changes to his starting eleven, bringing in Michael Ward, Aidan Watson, Stephen Lowry and Gary Haveron back into the side.

It was the visitors who started well against a Ballymena side playing their first game in nearly three weeks due to the postponement of last week's game against Limavady and the Irish Cup ties the week before.

Gary McKinstry's Armagh City side took the lead after just 15 minutes, when Johnny McSorley's dangerous free-kick was met with a powerful header from Terry Fitzpatrick.

Braid goalkeeper Paul Murphy managed to get a hand the ball, but couldn't prevent the strong effort finding it's way into the back of the United goal.

The visitors, who have struggled to find form of late, were dominating the play against a hapless United side - and could well have gone two goals ahead when Liam Cullen played through Shane Coney and he forced an excellent reaction save from Murphy, who managed to turn the goalbound effort away with his feet.

On the half hour Armagh had a goal disallowed after a handball in the build up to Liam Cullen's attempt on goal.

The best that the home side could muster came late in the half when Stuart King fired wide from close range, as the Sky Blues went into the break with the distinct possibility of losing their sixth game in sucession.

Ballymena United came out of the blocks in the second half and looked like a team determined to make amends, as they battled hard but continued to struggle to make a breakthrough.

The equaliser did come on 57 minutes though when the Sky Blues were awarded a free-kick on the right-hand edge of the penalty area.

Winger Stuart King, who had a fine second half, managed to overhit his cross and the ball rocketed into the top corner to bring his side back into the game with only his second goal of the season.

Wright through on Garth Scates and Davitt Walsh in search of a winner and it came six minutes from time, as the constant pressure finally paid off.

Combative midfielder Gavin Melaugh played Kevin Kelbie through and the Scot got the better of Ciaran Friel before firing home for his 14th goal of the season and what turned out to be the winning goal.

Tommy Wright was pleased with the long overdue victory; "We have to look forward, not back, we are pleased to get it. I thought we held our nerve and composure even after they took the lead. They are very difficult to break down. The first half hour we looked as if we hadn’t played for three weeks," he said.

"The last 15 minutes of the first half we created four or five good chances. Second half, I don’t think they can have any complaints. I thought we fully dominated the game and deserved to win."

Teams:

BALLYMENA UNITED	ARMAGH CITY
1: MURPHY, Paul	1: ADDIS, Stuart
2: WRAY, Thomas	2: FRIEL, Ciaran
3: McCLEAN, Craig	4: LATIMER, Iain
4: WATSON, Aidan	5: FITPATRICK, Gary
5: KELLY, Simon	6: HAWTHORNE, David
6: HAVERON, Gary (c)	7: SLATER, James
7: LOWRY, Stephen	8: CULLEN, Liam
8: MELAUGH, Gavin	9: CONEY, Shane
9: WARD, Michael	10: McSORLEY, Johnny
10: KELBIE, Kevin	11: McCANN, Austin
11: KING, Stuart	19: GRACEY, Mark
Substitutes	-
12: SCATES, Garth	12: McMULLAN, Ciaran
Replaced Stephen Lowry (72 mins)	Replaced Johnny McSorely (50 mins)
14: PICKING, Mark	14: FORKER, Conor
Not Used	Replaced Austin McCann (87 mins)
15: CUSHLEY, David	15: McCANN, Austin
Not Used	Not Used
16: PATRICK, Lee	16: McNEILL, Peter
Replaced Michael Ward (87 mins)	Not Used
17: WALSH, Davitt	17: HEFFERNAN, Finbar
Replaced Craig McClean (83 mins)	Not Used
Yellow Cards:	-
HAVERON, Gary (40 mins)	CULLEN, Liam (23 mins)
-	HAWTHORNE, David (74 mins)
-	GRACEY, Mark (86 mins)
-	FITZPATRICK, Gary (90+2 mins)
Red Cards:	-
None	None