The first half proved to be fairly mundane with both sides failing to the apply the required final touch with Dungannon forward Shane Coney volleying over early on and the same player could have done better with an attempted chip after cutting out a poor Gavin Taggart pass.

United striker Andy Smith blazed a header wide of the target whilst at the other end Mark Surgenor, making his Premiership debut, was on hand to make an important stop on the line to prevent an almost certain home goal.

On 40 minutes the home side took the lead when Ryan McIlmoyle's cross was met by the outstretched leg of Marc McCann who forced the ball across goal and allowed Coney to get in front of Gary Haveron to tap home from close range for the opening goal.

The scores were back level within two minutes as Philip Carson's through ball was not properly cleared by Darren Murphy who headed across his own goal only into the path of Andy Smith who was dangerously taken out by Murphy only for Nathan McConnell to tap home the loose ball from even closer range than the first.

Seven minutes into the second half, United committed defensive suicide when Ormo Okunaiya allowed McAliskey to get to the bye-line and cut back for the unmarked McIlmoyle for a simple tap-in to restore the Tyrone side's lead.

This sparked an almost relentless period of Ballymena pressure which couldn't produce a goal, as United failed to test Barabados International Alvin Rouse, but the Sky Blues did have a number of calls for penalties turned down.

The closest the Braidmen came was with the last throw of the dice in injury time when Andy Smith's 25-yard free-kick flew agonisingly wide of the post as Roy Walker's men are still without a point after two Premiership games.

"Football's a cruel game. We felt there was more in the game for us but we're disappointed with the goals, particular the second," reflected manager Roy Walker.

"If you look at the game objectively, we dominated the second half in particular yet we've come away with nothing but you can't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

"I can't fault effort of the fact we tried to get something from it but I didn't think we got enough support up to the front men and I felt at times we were a wee bit one-dimensional and tried to put the ball in too early instead of trying to work it wide and get it to the bye-line.

Picture: www.presseye.com

Teams:

DUNGANNON SWIFTS	BALLYMENA UNITED
1: ROUSE, Alvin	1: O'NEILL, Sean
3: McALISKEY, Fergal	2: SMITH, Michael
4: MONTGOMERY, Johnny	3: COLLIGAN, Lee
5: McMINN, Adam	4: HAVERON, Gary (c)
6: FITZPATRICK, Terry	5: SURGENOR, Mark
7: McCAFFERTY, Neil	6: TAGGART, Gavin
9: ADAMSON, Timmy	7: WATSON, Aidan
11: McILMOYLE, Ryan	8: CARSON, Philip
13: MURPHY, Darren	9: SMITH, Andy
18: CONEY, Shane	10: McCONNELL, Nathan
20: WATSON, Aidan	11: OKUNAIYA, Ormon
Substitutes	-
8: McAREE, Rodney	12: CUSHLEY, David
Not Used	Replaced Nathan McConnell (74 mins)
12: FERGUSON, Andrew	13: STEWART, George
Replaced Fergal McAliskey (90 mins)	Replaced Ormon Okunaiya (79 mins)
14: DONNELLY, Sean	14: McNEILL, Paul
Not Used	Replaced Aidan Watson (74 mins)
22: MOONEY, Calvin	15: WATSON, Albert
Replaced Shane Coney (81 mins)	Not Used
23: HAMILTON, Andrew	16: ANDERSON, Noel
Not Used	Not Used
Yellow Cards:	-
Unknown	Unknown
Red Cards:	-
None	None