Ballymena United manager David Jeffrey left frustrated at Institute

The combination of last ditch defending and some poor finishing by the Braidmen, meant they left the Brandywell with only a share of the spoils.

“Ironically we probably passed and kept the ball better than any other time this season and we created chances, but we didn’t win the game,” he stated.

“We created six very score able chances in the first half and in the second half we dominated possession and again didn’t take the opportunities that came our way and we were hit by the sucker blow when we came in at half-time trailing.

“I just told the players to keep doing what you are doing but let's don’t be wasteful. We got a great goal from Jonathan Addis and I thought we would kick-on from there, but despite our domination and the amount of chances we created we couldn’t take one, which would have sealed victory.”

Jeffrey praised the Drumahoe men, who for the third game running under Sean Connor’s stewardship, worked their socks off and are starting to show that never say die attitude, which they had for most of last season.

“You have got to give credit to Institute, they worked extremely hard, they were well organised and got behind the ball and made things difficult for us,” he added.

“However in saying all that I have told my players that the analysis is simple, if you hadn’t created chances then OK you are wondering why, but we created six very scorable chances in the first half and another two if not three in the second half and when you create that number of chances, you have to take them, if you don’t take them then you don’t win games of football.

“So it’s a day of frustration. I can’t complain about effort, work-rate or commitment, can’t complain about them wanting to pass the ball and keep the ball, we didn’t resort hoffing it at any stage, so everything was great up until the time when you have got to put the ball in the back of the net.

“However that being said we move on and I’m not going to start criticising those who missed the chances, because they had the bravery to keep getting in there.

“But we are going home frustrated and disappointed, not because of the efforts from the players but just the fact that we didn’t win a game, which was winnable simply because of those chances that we created.”