Daire O'Connor's derby double helps Oran Kearney defeat former club with first win for current club

Will Patching's curling attempt left Ballymena goalkeeper Sean O'Neill with an early introduction into the derby date.

O'Connor - building on his growing end product with the Sky Blues - made his mark after just 12 minutes by racing on off Kian Corbally's slick defence-splitting pass behind Coleraine defender Lyndon Kane.

O'Connor recovered from his heavy initial touch to poke the ball past the advancing Ryan Schofield at a stretch.

Danny Lafferty came close to increasing the home advantage off a long-range free-kick but the exciting strike drifted wide of the upright.

The Coleraine response featured Joel Cooper showing determination to create space for the Bannsiders and find Zane Okoro, with the latter's shot deflected away from goal off Aaron Jarvis.

Jarvis came close to making his mark in an attacking sense but he failed to find the target following good work by O'Connor.

Coleraine's Jamie McGonigle cut inside and fired goalwards only to see O'Neill deliver a key glove to divert the attempt on to the top of the crossbar.

O'Neill pulled off a stop to flick over the bar off a Cameron Stewart header from Patching's corner-kick then was in position to collect McGonigle's shot.

It was then two for Ballymena and two for O'Connor on 67 minutes. With Corbally, once again, providing the assist, his pass sent O'Connor clear into the left-hand side of the penalty area and the latter produced a smart strike.

BALLYMENA UNITED: O'Neill, Toure, McCallion, Clarke, Lafferty, Thompson, McGeouch, Jarvis, Corbally, O'Connor, Edogun.

Subs: Breen, Gould, Scott, O'Donnell, O'Reilly, Taylor, Hood.

COLERAINE: Schofield, Kane, Dunne, Stewart, Ives, Doherty, Patching, Okoro, Glackin, Cooper, Shevlin.

Subs: Harris, McGregor, McGonigle, McDonald, McGrath, Watson, Devlin.