In what was Ballymena United's penultimate pre-season friendly in preparation for the new IFA Premiership season starting next Saturday, manager Roy Walker fielded a full strength side which is likely to be similar to next week's line-up.

Ballymena United started brightly from the kick-off and with just two minutes on the clock former International striker Andy Smith broke free but drilled his shot wide of the visitors goal.

The tourists though held their own in the early stages when firstly, Danny Waldren forced a good save from O'Neill from a free-kick and Karl Murray also tested the home goalkeeper whith a powerful header.

With 20 minutes gone, the friendly threatened to tick over following a strong tackle on a United player. Both sets of players contributed to an ugly interchange which was soon cleared by referee Keith Furlonger.

The London side continued to frustrate the Warden Street men as Kevin Kelbie twice went close, firstly from an audacious overhead kick, the second from a chipped effort which was tipped over by Ross Flitney in the Croydon goal.

Full-back Michael Smith was called upon to clear a goalbound effort off the line towards the end of the first half with O'Neill well beaten.

The start of the second period did not start well for the Sky Blues as Gavin Taggart was forced off with suspected concussion two minutes into the second half, to be replaced by Noel Anderson.

Chances proved to be few and far between in the second half as Justin Gregory cleared a United corner off his line while Noel Anderson seen his effort go agonisly close with 15 minutes remaining.

As the game finished scoreless, in what was a fair assessment of a keenly fought encounter - United will now finish their pre-season campaign away to Chimney Corner on Monday evening.

Teams:

BALLYMENA UNITED	CROYDON ATHLETIC
1: O'NEILL, Sean	1: FLITNEY, Ross
2: SMITH, Michael	2: GREGORY, Justin
3: COLLIGAN, Lee	3: HOWE, Joe
4: HAVERON, Gary (c)	4: MURRAY, Karl
5: MUIR, Paul	5: BLACKWELL, Richard
6: TAGGART, Gavin	6: MUNDAY, Jon
7: OKUNAIYA, Ormon	7: BOLARINWA, Tom
8: CARSON, Philip	8: WALDREN, Danny
9: SMITH, Andy	9: GODFREY, Ben
10: KELBIE, Kevin	10: NOEL, Gary
11: LOCKHART, Darren	11: O'FLAHERTY, Chris
Substitutes	-
12: McCONNELL, Nathan	12: WILLIAMS, Jeremy
Not Used	Not Used
14: ANDERSON, Noel	13: PECK, Adam
Replaced Gavin Taggart (47 mins)	Not Used
15: WATSON, Aidan	14: MOODY, Danny
Not Used	Replaced Tom Bolarinwa (88 mins)
16: WATSON, Albert	15: WARREN, Jamie
Not Used	Not Used
17: CUSHLEY, David	16: DUNNE, Callum
Replaced Darren Lockhart (65 mins)	Not Used
	17: GREENE, Nathan
	Replaced Chris O'Flaherty (79 mins)
	18: DUKE, Bradley
	Not Used
Yellow Cards:	-
None	None
Red Cards:	-
None	None