Special praise for Carrick Rangers star after playing key role in Ballymena United victory which keeps European dream alive

The victory kept Stuart King’s team in the hunt for a seventh-placed Premiership finish that would earn them a slot in the end-of-season European play-offs.

It wasn’t pretty at times – in fact, it was brutally boring and incident free until Tilney shot Carrick into the lead on 66 minutes – but it was worth waiting for.

Having picked up a pass from Steven Gordon, he cut inside, weaving his way through a number of challenges before shooting under the body of goalkeeper Sean O’Neill.

Striker Danny Gibson sealed the deal near the end, but it was more by luck than anything else. His speculative cross from the right got caught up in the wind and the ball sailed into the top corner.

Although young Noah Stewart blasted home a beauty to reduce the deficit, it was too late for United – they sunk to their 25th defeat of the campaign.

Irvine, standing in for banned boss King, stated: “Ben produced the one bit of quality, and it paid a big dividend.

“The first half was awful...neither side managed to cope with the windy conditions. We told the boys (playing against the wind), it was all about game management.

“To be fair, Ballymena hit us with everything after the restart, but once Ben scored, we were more comfortable. It was a brilliant goal...he has that in his locker.

“Unfortunately we’ve missed him on too many occasions this season because he’s carrying a knee injury.

“I think Danny’s goal killed off Ballymena, although I think it was more of an assist from Danny, with the wind playing a part in the ball going into the net.

“With only three games left, we are still in with a shout of claiming seventh place in the table...it’s a matter of taking one game at a time, starting with Newry City on Tuesday night.”

The Sky Blues remain only five points ahead of basement side Newry City and boss Jim Ervin believes the loss of Brendan Barr in the second-half was costly.

“They caught us cold a little bit when we made a substitution,” he said. “Brendan coped so well with Tilney all day. We had just changed things when he scored.

“He went by three or four players across the middle of the pitch, which he is good at, we missed too many tackles. It was a good goal from Carrick’s perspective; a poor one from our point. After that, we were looking for a reaction that we didn’t really get.

“The second goal was simply a freak. He (Gibson) tried to cross the ball and the wind took it in. Fair play to him, he put the ball in the box and got a result – something we didn’t do.

“When Noah scored it was too late for us. We can’t afford to feel sorry for ourselves. We must dust ourselves down because we’ve another difficult game at home to Glenavon on Tuesday night, which is another massive match.”