The Braidmen sported their new home strip for the first time on the club's annual open day, which proved to be one of the most successful in recent years.

The first chance of the game fell to the visitors as Portadown defender, Keith O’Hara seen his shot tipped over the bar by Alan Blayney.

United began to take the control of the game from then on, as on 16 minutes Stuart King, playing in an unfamiliar right wing role, seen his effort blocked by the Shamrock Park defence.

The lively Kevin Kelbie fired a snapshot from the edge of the penalty area, which forced the opposition goalkeeper, David Miskelly, into a fine reflex save as he turned the ball out for a corner kick.

From the resulting corner on 23 minutes, the Portadown defence blocked the corner only as far as the talisman Kelbie who headed home his first goal of the summer.

Straight away the Ports were back on the attack in search of an equaliser as Kevin Braniff had an effort turned away by Blayney.

With the interval looming, the lively Kelbie had a number of chances, but the Braidmen came closest to increasing their lead a minute before the break when Kelbie beat the offside trap but his attempt at squaring the ball to the unmarked Davitt Walsh was foiled by the Portadown goalkeeper.

United started the second half in similar fashion, as Walsh again came closest to giving Ballymena a two goal lead.

However, on 61 minutes the Championship side struck an equaliser from a corner when Kevin Braniff's shot from a corner creaped through a crowded penalty box and into the back of the net.

Straight from the restart though Braniff went from hero to villain as his dangerous tackle on United defender Craig McClean which led to a retaliation from the Ballymena player. Both players escaped a red card, but were forcefully substituted by the referee.

The sky blues nearly forced a winner from efforts from Davitt Walsh which just went just wide and Liam Mullan's half-volley was tipped over the bar as the Warden Street side had to settle for a draw against Ronnie McFall's side.

Next for Ballymena in their penultimate pre-season encounter will be a trip to Broughshane to take on Raceview on Thursday evening.

Teams:

BALLYMENA UNITED	PORTADOWN
1: BLAYNEY, Alan	1: MISKELLY, David
2: WRAY, Thomas	2: PORTER, Gareth
3: McCLEAN, Craig	3: COLEMAN, Chris
4: MELAUGH, Gavin	4: HUNTER, Andrew
5: WATSON, Albert (c)	5: O'HARA, Keith
6: HAVERON, Gary	6: McCULLOUGH, David
7: KING, Stuart	7: TEGGART, Mark
8: McDONNELL, Joe	8: MOUNCEY, Tim
9: WALSH, Davitt	9: McCUTCHEON, Gary
10: KELBIE, Kevin	10: BRANIFF, Kevin
11: MULLAN, Liam	11: SPROULE, Andrew
Substitutes	-
14: PICKING, Mark	13: ARMSTRONG, Neil
Replaced Stuart King (75 mins)	Replaced Aaron Stewart (46 mins)
16: HOGAN, Liam	14: HAIRE, Aaron
Replaced Craig McClean (62 mins)
17: WATSON, Aidan	17: TOPLEY, Johnny
Replaced Liam Mullan (75 mins)
18: McNEILL, Paul	18: McKEE, Neil
Replaced Davitt Walsh (82 mins)
20: O'NEILL, Sean	20: LECKEY, Richard
Not Used
Yellow Cards:	-
None
Red Cards:	-
None	None