The Sky Blues visited the Suffolk Road stadium to face the table topping West Belfast side in what promised to be a tricky fixture; Roy Walker recalled Sean O'Neill, Gavin Taggart and Nathan McConnell to the side from that which lost to Linfield on Saturday.

United took control from the start and this quarter-final tie was never in doubt when David Cushley opened the scoring after just 17 minutes. Michael Smith's low cross deflected off Noel Anderson and the ball fell kindly to the in-form David Cushley who easily headed home on the line.

Despite having the lionshare of posession, the Braidmen had to wait until five minutes before the break before they could add to their lead; Noel Anderson created and finished the effort when his strong tackle forced the ball off a Donegal Celtic defender and having regained the ball he took one touch before placing a superb low volley past the stranded goalkeeper for his first United goal.

Into to second half and Walker's men killed the game off as a contest when on 52 minutes, Cushley struck again when he fired a fierce shot from outside the box which found it's way goalward after Declan Brown in the home goal couldn't get a strong enough hand to it - this was the Shankill Road winger's fourth goal of the season.

Celtic, managed by former Coleraine captain Pat McAllister, made three substitions at the break one of which - Paul McVeigh - was to pull a goal back for the Hoops four minutes later. Aaron Stewart was harshly adjudged to have obstructed Stephen O'Neill in the penalty area and the long-serving McVeigh tucked away the resulting penalty kick.

In time added on, Ballymena United regained their three goal advantage when Gavin Taggart finished off a good team move drilling an effort from the edge of the box into the home goal for his second goal in Ballymena colours.

"The summation would be 'mission accomplished'," United boss Roy Walker told the Ballymena Times.

"We played good stuff but we didn't play it as often as we could have played it. I would have loved to have seen us pass the ball earlier.

"It's fantastic to get to a semi-final. It was important that we reached at least that stage because there will be more prize money and in this commercial world, we are suffering as much as anybody from the downturn," added Walker.

Ballymena United will face one of Linfield, Crusaders or Cliftonville in the semi-finals of the Shield with the draw to be conducted on Saturday evening as the Sky Blues look to bring the senior Shield back to Warden Street for the first time since 1980.

Picture: www.presseye.com

Teams:

DONEGAL CELTIC	BALLYMENA UNITED
1:	1: O'NEILL, Sean
2:	2: SMITH, Michael
3:	3: COLLIGAN, Lee
4:	4: STEWART, Aaron
5:	5: ANDERSON, Noel
6:	6: TAGGART, Gavin
7:	7: CUSHLEY, David
8:	8: McCONNELL, Nathan
9:	9: SMITH, Andy
10:	10: KELBIE, Kevin
11:	11: LOCKHART, Darren
Substitutes	-
12:	12: OKUNIAYA, Ormon
	Replaced David Cushley (89 mins)
13:	13: NELSON, Dwayne
	Not Used
14:	14: WATSON, Aidan
	Replaced Andy Smith (64 mins)
15:	15: McNEILL, Paul
	Replaced Nathan McConnell (83 mins)
16:	16: DEANS, Ryan
	Not Used
Yellow Cards:	-
Unknown	Unknown
Red Cards:	-
None	None