After the mayhem of Distillery and defeats by relegation battlers Larne and Limavady all inside a week, this must be the seven-day equivalent of what the Queen once famously referred to as her annus horribilis.

More importantly, it has taken Ballymena United from a position where they would, by now, have expected to have had sixth position in the bag with fifth in their sights, to looking anxiously over their shoulder at the chasing pack.

"The scoreline is a false reflection on the game – Paul Murphy didn't have a save to make - but the reality is that they scored three goals and it's a terrible result for us," said United boss Tommy Wright.

"The most disappointing thing is that it was so one-sided in the first half hour and we got our goal but then we started to mess about and take too many touches.

Second half we weren't as good as in the first half but we still had the better chances but we overplayed in good positions.

"Our performance wasn't bad but we lost momentum and where we lost the game was letting them back into the game far too easily in the last 15 minutes of the first half when we had dominated.

"For their second goal we had eight players back and they had only five forward yet we still allowed McIlmoyle to lay it back for McClean to shoot – no-one took responsibility for closing down a shot from outside the box and by the third goal, we looked as if we had given up the ghost.

"I asked for certain things from the players and I know I didn't get them. It might now be, from a situation of looking for two or three more players, it might be three or four because sometimes I think our players believe they have arrived.

"That's been the case since we won at Glentoran on New Year's Day and that's not good enough," fumed Wright.

Ballymena's territorial domination in the first half was rewarded with a nicely crafted goal on 20 minutes.

Kevin Kelbie outmuscled a defender before curling a low pass into the penalty area which was guided first time into the corner of the net by the in-rushing Gavin Melaugh.

But despite spending much of the half encamped in the Limavady half, Ballymena looked susceptible at the back and Gareth Tommins’ well-struck first-time volley levelled the scores five minutes before the interval.

That goal gave Limavady a boost and they took the lead on 68 minutes when Ryan McIlmoyle ran at a back-pedalling United defence before laying the ball back for Brian McClean – a Ballymena reserve team player during Kenny Shiels’ time in charge - to drill a 20-yard shot past Paul Murphy.

And Ballymena's fate was sealed with six minutes left when Barry Curran's right wing cross was met with a textbook near post header by Tommins, the ball entering the top corner of the net at the stanchion.

Report by Stephen Alexander from the Ballymena Times

Teams:

LIMAVADY UNITED	BALLYMENA UNITED
1: MILLAR, Glenn	1: MURPHY, Paul
2: KEARNEY, Liam	2: WRAY, Thomas
3: KELLY, Eoghan	3: McCLEAN, Craig
4: KING, David	4: PATRICK, Lee
5: MULLAN, Ryan	5: WATSON, Albert (c)
6: TOMMINS, Gareth	6: KELLY, Simon
7: CROSSAN, Gary	7: LOWRY, Stephen
8: McCLEAN, Brian	8: MELAUGH, Gavin
9: McKEEVER, Declan	9: WARD, Michael
10: BROWN, Paul	10: KELBIE, Kevin
11: McILMOYLE, Ryan	11: KING, Stuart
Substitutes	-
12: GASTON, Paul	12: SCATES, Garth
Replaced Liam Kearney (46 mins)	Replaced Lee Patrick (73 mins)
14: BELL, David	14: PICKING, Mark
Replaced Eoghan Kelly (63 mins)	Replaced Stephen Lowry (73 mins)
15: LYNCH, Conor	15: HAVERON, Gary
Not Used	Not Used
16: CURRAN, Barry	16: CUSHLEY, David
Replaced Gary Crossan (63 mins)	Not Used
17: BOYD, Matthew	17: WALSH, Davitt
Not Used	Not Used
Yellow Cards:	-
Unknown	Unknown
Red Cards:	-
None	None