Roy Walker's only change to his side that picked up their first three points of the season at the Oval was to bring in Ormon Okunaiya for David Cushley.

The Braidmen, attacking the recently damaged Warden Street end, had the best of the early chances when former Glenavon striker Andy Smith seen his header tipped over by Glenavon goalkeeper, Tuda Murphy.

Darren Lockhart was next to try his luck from range but shot straight at the Cayman Island international. However, Walker was given an early scare when on-loan goalkeeper Aaron Kerr collapsed in agony whilst under no pressure - but continued on.

With 27 minutes gone, Philip Carson gave away a free kick 25-yards from goal. Trevor Molloy stepped up and fired his shot goalward and with the help of a wicked deflection flew past the stranded United goalkeeper to give Marty Quinn's side the lead.

In first half injury time, Glenavon nearly doubled their lead when Costello played a neat one-two with Grant but his low near-post drive forced a good reaction save from Kerr.

It didn't take long for the threat of another visiting goal to become reality. Molloy jinxed through some weak United challenges to drill a low cross across the face of goal and fellow Southerner Tony Grant reacted before the flat-footed United defence to bundle the ball home.

The closest Ballymena came to scoring was a David Cushley free-kick which failed to trouble the visiting keeper, whilst at the other end Glenavon had the ball in the back of the net again but Grant's effort was deemed offside.

Glenavon's third did arrive though ten minutes from time when Costello's low cross beat a static home defence and allowed Stuart King to fire home with ease, much to the former Ballymena winger's delight.

With five defeats from their opening six games; Ballymena United will face an important trip to Institute on Saturday looking to bounce back from this disappointing showing.

Picture: www.presseye.com

Teams:

BALLYMENA UNITED	GLENAVON
1: KERR, Aaron	13: MURPHY, Tuda
2: SMITH, Michael	2: CAMPBELL, Shea
3: COLLIGAN, Lee	4: MAGEE, Jay
4: SURGENOR, Mark	9: GRANT, Tony
5: WATSON, Albert	10: MOLLOY, Trevor
6: ANDERSON, Noel	11: KING, Stuart
7: OKUNAIYA, Ormon	12: McDONAGH, Willo (c)
8: CARSON, Philip	14: CARVILL, Paul
9: SMITH, Andy	17: COSTELLO, James
10: KELBIE, Kevin (c)	24: HARPUR, Ryan
11: LOCKHART, Darren	27: GRACEY, Mark
Substitutes	-
12: STEWART, Aaron	3: TURKINGTON, Mark
Not Used	Replaced Paul Carvill (90 mins)
13: TAGGART, Gavin	6: HARPER, Adrian
Not Used	Replaced Willo McDonagh (89 mins)
14: McCONNELL, Nathan	8: WALSH, Conor
Replaced Kevin Kelbie (71 mins)	Replaced Ryan Harpur (84 mins)
15: CUSHLEY, David	16: HAUGHEY, Mark
Replaced Noel Anderson (52 mins)	Not Used
16: NELSON, Dwayne	18: LIGGETT, Gary
Not Used	Not Used
Yellow Cards:	-
Unknown	Unknown
Red Cards:	-
None	None