MANAGER'S VERDICT: Ballymena United boss Jim Ervin chuffed to bits with eye-catching win at champions Larne
Ballymena United manager Jim Ervin says Ben Kennedy’s match winning moments was the reason he brought the attacker to the club after netting in the 1-0 win at Inver Park.
Kennedy’s 85th minute winner was enough to give the Sky Blues all three points and here’s what Ervin had to say after the full-time whistle.
SOME WIN THIS AFTERNOON?
"It was a rollercoaster and a brilliant result.
"It's a brilliant three points and a clean sheet which I'm absolutely over the moon with.
"There's not too many times that come to Larne and do that, so to our boys and not just the starting eleven but the subs also, everyone stuck to their word and my word did they deliver.
"You have Ben who pops up with the winner and that's why we've brought a player like that to the football club to win games of football at a difficult venue like this.
SEEMED DEFENSIVELY COMFORTABLE?
"They are incredible, back-to-back champions and have qualified for Europe - so they are going to have a lot of the ball.
"I think defensively we were outstanding and whilst they hit the bar, they didn't have a shot on target in the first half and Sean maybe had one other save from distance.
"There were a couple of crosses that he came out to deal with...but it's not just Sean and the back four. It's the whole team as a unit, the team as a whole and I thought they deserved it as they were incredible.
"We asked Ethan (Devine) to come on in the last ten minutes and run himself ragged, which he did by forcing the corner and then we scored from that.
"It was incredible and when I saw the six minutes going up, I was panicking but we managed to hold on and they didn't have a shot in stoppage time.
"From front to back defensively we were outstanding.
INJURY UPDATE:
"There's been nothing since last week.
"Obviously Sean Brown and Oisin Devlin couldn't play today as they are on loan from Larne, so they were unavailable.
"Caolan Loughran and Stephen O'Donnell have niggles and it's not a game to push people and carry people, so we made the decision to pull them out.
"Other than that it's the long-term boys; Joe Moore is coming back slowly but surely but is looking sharp this week.
"Jack O'Mahony is back in contention now so we are getting numbers back which is a bonus for us because it's going to be a squad game.