It could have been very different for Roy Walker's side though, as they went a goal behind after only ten minutes as slack defending allowed former Coleraine midfielder Alan Ewart to break through and fire past Sean O'Neill in the United goal.

The lead only lasted sixty seconds as the Sky Blues went straight up the field and forced a corner from which Darren Lockhart rose unmarked to equalise for the visitors.

From then on it was one way traffic as on 16 minutes the in-form Nathan McConnell showed great control in the Carrick penalty area before cooly slotting the ball past former United goalkeeper Gregg Shannon to put United into the lead.

On the half hour, new signing Andy Smith scored United's third before Darren Lockhart scored his second header of the game on 34 minutes when he rose unchallenged to finish for Ballymena's fourth goal of the evening.

The second half was of a slower tempo, with United only adding the one goal to their impressive tally. In arguably the goal of the game, Darren Lockhart laid the ball off on the edge of the box for Andy Smith who curled a tremendous effort into the top corner, giving the outstretched Shannon no chance.

With 20 minutes remaining, subsitute Mark Picking seen his goalbound effort rattle the post, as United continued to press forward without the fluency of their first-half play.

In the final minute, the game threatened to boil over when Carrick substitute Paul Prenter made a dangerous late challenge on United forward Andy Smith, which went unpunished by the referee; Gary Haveron fired the resulting free-kick from the edge of the box well over.

Overall, another good workout for the Sky Blues who will keep their pre-season campaign going with a trip to Broughshane based neighbours, Raceview, on Thursday evening (7.00pm kick-off).

Teams:

CARRICK RANGERS	BALLYMENA UNITED
Team Unknown	20: O'NEILL, Sean
	2: WATSON, Aidan
	3: COLLIGAN, Lee
	4: HAVERON, Gary (c)
	5: MUIR, Paul
	6: ANDERSON, Noel
	7: OKUNAYIA, Ormon
	8: CARSON, Philip
	9: SMITH, Andy
	10: McCONNELL, Nathan
	11: LOCKHART, Darren
Substitutes	-
	12: GRATTAN, William
	Replaced Nathan McConnell (64 mins)
	13: TAGGART, Gavin
	Replaced Noel Anderson (46 mins)
	14: SMITH, Michael
	Replaced Aidan Watson (64 mins)
	15: McCLEAN, Craig
	Replaced Lee Colligan (46 mins)
	16: WATSON, Albert
	Replaced Paul Muir (46 mins)
	17: PICKING, Mark
	Replaced Darren Lockhart (64 mins)
Yellow Cards:	-
	None
Red Cards:	-
	None