With an ultimately dismal season almost reaching conclusion – much to the relief of many of Ballymena United’s long suffering supporters - a win against Lisburn Distillery, managed by former manager Tommy Wright, would have been light relief ahead of the summer break.

The Whites sealed a miraculous escape from relation on the Friday night without kicking a ball, following Institute’s draw with Coleraine. Ballymena, with only pride to play for, gave a rare start to Nathan McConnell with Mark Surgenor suspended and Andy Smith injured.

However, like so many times throughout this arduous campaign – Ballymena went behind to an early goal, and much like most previous cases of this occurrence; the Ballymena United defence only had themselves to blame. Chris Ramsey at fault this time as his error allowed Gary Browne to break free and fire Distillery in front after only seven minutes.

Bombing forward like a team in form, Tommy Wright's side were still pressing forward and causing the home side endless problems. Goalkeeper Dwayne Nelson was called into action when he did well to turn away an effort from Neal Gawley. The Distillery winger had the better of Nelson a few minutes later when he sent a delightful chip goal-bound which Aaron Stewart managed to scoop away on the goal-line.

Despite being on the back-foot, the Warden Street men started coming back into the game as Aidan Watson and Gary Haveron both tested the visiting defenders; but ironically it was a former Distillery player who equalised for Ballymena in the 29th minute. It all came from Player-of–the-Year Michael Smith’s good work down the right, his cross missed Kelbie but fell nicely for Noel Anderson who swivelled and fired past Matthews to haul his side back into contention.

The game hit a lull after the equaliser and it took an audacious effort from another former Distillery player to liven things up on 53 minutes. Scottish winger’s sliced cross headed goalwards with pace and took the quick thinking from the veteran Matthews to turn the ball over.

United defender Albert Watson also went close when his header from a Gary Muir corner was headed off the line by Pat McShane.

Walker handed a debut to teenage striker Ross Nelson as a substute for Nathan McConnell; it was a double celebration for the Larne youngster as he also won the Third team player of the year award.

The decisive goal came late on though as Gary Browne struck Distillery's winning goal with only seven minutes remaining, sparking wild celebration in the away end.

Pictures: www.presseye.com

Teams:

BALLYMENA UNITED	LISBURN DISTILLERY
1: NELSON, Dwayne	1: MATTHEWS, Phil
2: RAMSEY, Chris	2: McCANN, Peter
3: STEWART, Aaron	3: McSHANE, Pat
4: HAVERON, Gary (c)	4: CALLAGHAN, Aaron
5: WATSON, Albert	6: MUIR, Paul
6: WATSON, Aidan	7: KILMARTIN, Andy
7: SMITH, Michael	9: FERGUSON, Glenn
8: ANDERSON, Noel	14: BROWNE, Gary
9: McCONNELL, Nathan	15: THOMPSON, Gary
10: KELBIE, Kevin	20: GAWLEY, Neal
11: ANDERSON, Noel	22: THOMPSON, Stuart
Substitutes	-
12: MUIR, Gary	11: MELAUGH, Gavin
Replaced Aidan Watson (46 mins)	Replaced Andy Kilmartin (85 mins)
13: McVEIGH, Dermot	16: FRIEL, Austin
Not Used	Replaced Neal Gawley (65 mins)
14: McLAUGHLIN, James	17: COOLING, Mark
Replaced Noel Anderson (53 mins)	Replaced Aaron Callaghan (55 mins)
15: NELSON, Ross	19: PATTON, Mark
Replaced Nathan McConnell (78 mins)	Not Used
16: KENNY, Jordan	24: McALINDEN, David
Not Used	Not Used
Yellow Cards:	-
Unknown	Unknown
Red Cards:	-
None	None