Jim Ervin praises Ballymena United youngster after brace helps secure third Premiership split victory

The Sky Blues have now won three of their four Premiership split fixtures, following up previous wins against Loughgall and Glenavon by putting four past Newry, who were officially relegated to the Championship following Portadown’s title success while Ballymena will face either Bangor, Annagh United or Institute in a two-legged affair to preserve top-flight status.

Stewart’s first-half double was further added to by Calvin McCurry’s second goal in as many matches and a late Steven McCullough penalty at the Showgrounds.

Former Linfield youngster Stewart joined Ballymena last summer and has now netted seven Premiership goals in 24 appearances, four of which have came in his last seven outings, and Ervin hopes he can continue to have an impact in the final weeks of this season.

"Everybody knows the story of Noah and how he got into the first team,” he told the club’s media channel. “He has probably been frustrated but as a young kid we have to do the right thing and take him out of certain games because there can't be too much expectation on him.

"He scored another two today so has climbed up the goalscoring charts and at that age he still has so much to learn, but when you have the knack of scoring like he does it speaks volumes.

"We will keep working hard with him...he has scored plenty of important goals for us and was unfortunate not to get his hat-trick today. Now we look forward to Dungannon Swifts and the play-offs after that so hopefully he can get another few goals between now and the end of the season.

"As for all the other younger lads, you had Shea McAuley coming on at 17, James Hood played on Tuesday evening...we've played a lot of younger players this season, sometimes it has went for us and sometimes it hasn't, but you're going to get that with young lads.

"They're playing at a really high level and it's all about learning from them. We'll look to help and guide them as much as we possibly can."