No less than four days earlier, Roy Walker's side had been dumped out of the Co-Operative Insurance League Cup by the Drumahoe side and now faced the Londonderry side again at the Showgrounds in an early kick-off due to the Northern Ireland friendly later in the evening.

United playing in their black change strip due to a colour clash with the visitors away sleeves made one change from the League Cup defeat on Tuesday evening, with Philip Carson returning to the starting eleven in place of Darren Lockhart.

The Braidmen got off to a terrible start when they conceded a penalty in the second minute following an unfortunate high foot from Albert Watson who caught Paul Brown in the face. The former-United striker stepped up to take the penalty which was well saved by United goalkeeper Dwayne Nelson.

It was only a temporary relief for the home side though as they went behind on seven minutes when Ruari Boyle's free-kick from deep was met by Mark Scoltock after he got ahead of United's Mark Surgenor, and he drilled in a low effort to give the visitors the lead.

In a poor half of football Chris Ramsey went close for Ballymena United firing an effort over the crossbar whilst the in-form Michael Smith also tested Gavin Cullen but unfortunately Nathan McConnell couldn't finish the rebound.

The equaliser finally came well into the second half after arguably the best move of the game on 69 minutes. Some excellent build up play down the right flank involving Michael and Andy Smith allowed McConnell to square a low cross to Kevin Kelbie who finished well with a first-time effort for his sixth goal of the season.

United boss Roy Walker wasn't happy with his side's performance; "I didn't think we played well although thought we missed the two best chances of the game, one in the first half from Nathan McConnell that came back off the goalkeeper and then in the second half both Chris Ramsey and Kevin had a go at it as it went across the face of goal.

"I genuinely thought it was as abject performance as we have given over the last 8-10 games. I didn't think we penetrated enough – it's alright having possession but you've got to go somewhere with it.

"I have to say the goal was a moment of quality, with six or seven passes and worked the ball wide and it was decent finish from Kevin at the end of it. It was probably one of the highlights of the game.

"I was disappointed in our own performance. Without naming names publicly, I didn't think we had enough players who played anywhere near their potential," added Walker.

Picture: www.presseye.com | Videos: Andy Nelson (Sky Blue TV)

Teams:

BALLYMENA UNITED	INSTITUTE
1: NELSON, Dwayne	1: CULLEN, Gavin
2: SMITH, Michael	2: BOYLE, Ruari
3: COLLIGAN, Lee	3: HOLMES, Shaun
4: RAMSEY, Chris	4: SCOLTOCK, Mark
5: WATSON, Albert	5: McCLEAN, Ruari
6: SURGENOR, Mark	6: OGILBY, David
7: CUSHLEY, David	7: SEMPLE, Ryan
8: CARSON, Philip	8: FRIARS, Sean
9: McCONNELL, Nathan	9: RAMSEY, Kevin
10: KELBIE, Kevin (c)	10: BROWN, Paul
11: ANDERSON, Noel	11: DIVIN, Declan
Substitutes	-
12: SMITH, Andy	12: BLACKBURN, Jason
Replaced David Cushley (56 mins)	Not Used
13: STEWART, Aaron	14: SEYDAK, Eamon
Replaced Mark Surgenor (33 mins)	Not Used
14: TAGGART, Gavin	15: LOWRY, Paul
Not Used	Replaced Kevin Ramsey (81 mins)
15: OKUNAIYA, Ormon	16: WRAY, Thomas
Not Used	Not Used
16: LOCKHART, Darren	17: BONNAR, Thomas
Replaced Philip Carson (56 mins)	Not Used
Yellow Cards:	-
Unknown	Unknown
Red Cards:	-
None	None