BALLYMENA UNITED FOOTBALL CLUB || NORTHERN IRELAND

Date: Saturday, 7th January, 2012; Competition: Carling IFA Premiership 24; Attendance: 2,416

BALLYMENA UNITED	[1]	1
LINFIELD	[1]	2

Venue: Ballymena Showgrounds (Ballymena); Kick-Off: 3.00pm; Referee: Raymond Hetherington

Goals:

[0-1] THOMPSON, Peter (11 mins);
[1-1] JENKINS (17 mins);
[1-2] MUNSTER, David (48 mins - own goal)

LINFIELD stretched their lead at the summit to seven points as they spoiled Glenn Ferguson's managerial debut with victory at The Showgrounds.

The Blues moved in front on 11 minutes when Mark McAllister got on the end of a through ball to square it for Peter Thompson to knock home.

But the Sky Blues got back on level terms just six minutes later through skipper Allan Jenkins who finished off a run from midfield to send a left-foot drive beyond Stuart Addis into the bottom corner.

Linfield regained the lead in somewhat fortunate circumstances on 48 minutes when McAllister played a BJ Burns cross into the box which bounced off a couple of players before taking a deflection off the unaware David Munster and past Drummond.

Philip Lowry looked set to add a third for the visitors in the final quarter-of-an-hour only to be thwarted by a perfectly timed Ross Black tackle.

Report from the Official Carling IFA Premiership website (www.ifapremiership.com)

Teams:

Ballymena United: Wayne Drummond, Tony Kane, Ross Black, Aaron Stewart, Gary McCutcheon, Allan Jenkins, Rory Carson (sub James Costello 75), Alan Teggart (sub Jamie Davidson 59), Mark Surgenor (sub Gavin Taggart 80), Jordan Baker, David Munster. Subs (not used): Neil Lowry, Chris Rodgers.

Linfield: Stuart Addis, William Murphy, Peter Thompson, Billy Joe Burns, Aaron Burns, Rory Patterson (sub Philip Lowry 69), Robert Garrett, Jim Ervin, Albert Watson, Mark McAllister, Chris Casement (sub Michael Gault 50). Subs (not used): Stephen Douglas, Damien Curran, Michael Carvill.