Ballymena might have taken the lead after ten minutes, however, when an Albert Watson goalbound header was cleared while a later Johnny Flynn effort was blocked by David Magowan.

Simon Kelly then tested Gregg Shannon with a long range drive on 28 minutes with a Stephen Lowry turn and shot going into the side netting soon after.

However it was the Crues who appeared to have broken the deadlock four minutes into the second half but Chris Morrow's back post tap-in was ruled out offside.

They did eventually make one count, though, on the hour when Stevie Coulter directed a header into the bottom corner from a Darren Lockhart free-kick.

And they doubled their lead on 72 minutes when Morrow nipped in at the far post to send a Mark McQuillan corner past Paul Murphy.

Coulter then completed the scoring with his second on 81 minutes after Morrow combined with David Rainey to create the opening.