My word did my players deliver, beams Ballymena United manager Jim Ervin as Ben Kennedy's late header seals win at Larne

The Sky Blues picked-up an eye-catching 1-0 success at the home of the league champions as Kennedy headed in from Josh Carson's corner with five minutes remaining.

Kennedy - a marquee signing from Crusaders in the summer - has already got five goals to his name since making the move to the Ballymena Showgrounds and his clinical edge in front of goal, added to a stern defensive performance, pleased Ervin after the hard-earned victory.

The visitors had to be patient to wait for that match winning opportunity, with Larne controlling large spells of possession but they failed to overly test Sean O’Neill.

"It was a rollercoaster and a brilliant result," he said.

"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.

"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.”

United were without several players for the contest and Ervin is hopeful of having more players back at his disposal ahead of next week’s clash against Glentoran at The Oval.

He added: "There's been no update on the injury front 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.

"We will enjoy the three points, we will enjoy the feeling but what I'm going to try and get through to the players is try and use that to kick you on.”