The Glens took the lead in strange circumstances on 12 minutes.

United 'keeper Paul Murphy reacted superbly to save Michael Halliday's header low down but the loose ball fell to Darren Lockhart who chipped it goalwards where Aaron Callaghan, in his attempts to clear, could only head the ball into the inside of his own net.

Lockhart almost doubled the Glens' advantage on 24 minutes when he was put clear by Halliday but his shot thumped off the crossbar before being cleared to safety.

Ballymena might have levelled on 40 minutes when Garth Scates' volley from a Paul Brown knock-down produced a marvellous reflex save from Elliott Morris.

But they suffered a setback five minutes into the second half when Gordon Simms was sent off by referee Adrian McCourt for bringing down Lockhart on the edge of the penalty area.

Worse was to follow as Kyle Neill fired the resultant free kick high past Murphy into the roof of the net.