Squad depth comes to the fore for Jim Ervin as Ballymena come from behind to beat Carrick Rangers

In a game played in difficult conditions due to the aftermath of Storm Amy, it was Carrick who made the breakthrough when Nedas Maciulaitis converted at the second attempt from Daniel Gibson’s cross on 16 minutes.

However, the Braidmen ensured the scores were level going into the interval as a corner-kick delivery was on the money for Kym Nelson to head home his first goal of the season.

The turnaround was completed just after the hour mark as a fine team move resulted in summer signing Ryan McNickle blasting into the back of the net as Ballymena made a return to winning ways after last weekend’s loss at home to Dungannon Swifts.

"Delighted with the three points," Ervin told Ballymena United's social media platforms after the game.

"The conditions today were extremely difficult. Credit to Carrick's ground staff as the pitch was immaculate. It's probably the best that I've seen it in a long time.

"The conditions were awful for both sets of players and it's extremely difficult to try and stamp your authority on the game.

"It wasn't a pretty day for football, you have to play the conditions and I felt we did that.

"We maybe had a tricky first 15 minutes in the game where they got a lot of play down their right-hand side, but once we managed to deal with that, I thought we were good in what we asked the players to do.

"The attitude from going a goal down was tremendous, I thought we deserved the goal before half-time and then we re-focused.

"For big Ryan to score the winner I'm delighted for him as he's had to be patient.”

McNickle starting the fixture was one of two changes for the Sky Blues as speedy winger Daire O’Connor was also named in the starting eleven.

Explaining as to why he made the changes, Ervin stated: “We’ve had a lot of football and we’re asking the same players to keep going and keep going.

“I’ve said from the start than when you’re looking to put a squad together, you’re looking for a squad where anyone can go in and replace someone else.

"We had the highs of Linfield and then we got a point away at Crusaders where we probably didn’t deserve to get anything...and then we had the disappointment against Dungannon.

"We needed to freshen things up. We needed to change the system because we knew we were coming down to a tighter pitch, we know what they are going to do and they are very direct.

"We put a team out on the pitch that was going to deal with it but have a major threat going the other way.

"When you’re going through a sticky patch...it’s hard to ask the same players to keep going and give you everything they’ve got.

"We’ve put a squad together, you’ve got to trust the players and Ryan and Daire have had to be patient...and we feel they’ve now reached that level of fitness to compete.”