Expectations where high amongst supporters as the Sky Blues returned to action for the first time in nearly four weeks following the 'big freeze' that brought sport in the province to a stand-still.

Club captain Gary Haveron also returned to the team for the first time after breaking his leg in August, while United were without the suspended quartet of Andy Smith, Chris Ramsey, Aidan Watson and James McLaughlin.

The home side arguably had the better of the first period, with the returning Haveron firing an early free-kick just over the bar.

With just over a quarter of an hour gone, the home side edged ever closer to taking the lead against their Championship opponents when Nathan McConnell and Michael Smith worked a chance for Kevin Kelbie but the Scottish forward's low shot forced a smart saved out of Andy McDonald.

Ballymena United continued to press, but as the half went on, Tommy Kincaid's Ards grew in confidence and on the half hour mark, they fashioned their first opporunity through Aaron McKee's low drive, former United striker Darren Fitzgerald also had an attempt from the edge of the penalty area but both efforts were dealt with comfortably by Sean O'Neill.

The County Down side almost took a surprise lead in first-half stoppage time when striker Darren Stirling controlled well and attempted a spectacular volley from the edge the area.

On 50 minutes, Craig McMillan's low drive forced O'Neill into his first testing save of the afternoon, whilst at the other end Nathan McConnell squandered the Braidmen's best chance of the half when he tamely shot straight at McDonald when clean through.

O'Neill was called into action again on 74 minutes when James Wright's free-kick was headed downward by David Cully forcing a reaction save from the United goalkeeper who turned the ball away with an oustretched foot.

Kelbie and Philip Carson both went agonisingly close for the home side but it was the Championship side who almost found themselves in the hat for the sixth round when James Wright missed a glorious chance with a header from point blank range.

"It was brutal, it was just brutal"; admitted United boss Roy Walker after the game.

"Can I bottle the answer, no, but there will be an elixir of hard medicine given out, as was given out post-match and we'll be here on Monday night trying to correct the problems.

"It would be disrespectful not to pay credit to the opposition and I would like to pay credit to them. But the big thing for my team is that I know we can do better and the question is why we didn't do better and that's something we have to address.

"I think it's down to the attitude of individual players. I feel we had that over-used four-letter word 'luck'; desert us at the beginning of the season when everything that could go wrong seemed to go wrong, but my goodness we got the majority of them back today.

"We feel fortunate, we could do better and will do better come Tuesday night, when we'll be able to make the changes."

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

Teams:

BALLYMENA UNITED	ARDS
20: O'NEILL, Sean	1: McDONALD, Andy
2: SMITH, Michael	2: NIXON, Darren
3: COLLIGAN, Lee	3: PIKE, Kris
4: HAVERON, Gary (c)	4: SPENCE, Gary
5: WATSON, Albert	7: McMILLEN, Craig
6: SURGENOR, Mark	8: DICKSON, Paul
7: CUSHLEY, David	9: STIRLING, Darren
8: STEWART, Aaron	10: FITZGERALD, Darren
9: McCONNELL, Nathan	11: McKEE, Aaron
10: KELBIE, Kevin	14: CULLY, David
11: LOCKHART, Darren	16: WRIGHT, James
Substitutes	-
1: NELSON, Dwayne	12: DOYLE, Stephen
Not Used	Replaced Darren Stirling (90 mins)
13: STEWART, George	13: RUTHERFORD, Lee
Replaced David Cushley (65 mins)	Not Used
14: CARSON, Philip	18: GORMAN, Thomas
Replaced Mark Surgenor (65 mins)	Not Used
15: DEANS, Ryan	19: WILSON, James
Not Used	Not Used
16: McNEILL, Paul
Replaced Nathan McConnell (81 mins)
Yellow Cards:	-
Unknown	Unknown
Red Cards:	-
None	None