A double from former Linfield player Garth Scates helped seal Glenavon's fate as Ballymena came from behind to win this CIS Cup game.

Former Ballymena keeper William McFredrick was the main surprise in the Glenavon line-up, Paul Rice (holiday) and Tuda Murphy (illness) both being unavailable. Gerard McMahon returned from a glandular infection but Conor Walsh missed out with a foot injury sustained in training during the week. Eamonn Murray retained his place and David Hawthorne filled in a right back for the suspended Ian Wallace.

Lewis Hamlin gave Glenavon a fifth minute lead with his first goal since joining the Club

Glenavon took the lead in the fifth minute when Murray turned past an attempted tackle and raced into the United half before slipping a perfectly weighted pass through to Lewis Hamlin who calmly slid the ball past Murphy in the visitor’s goal.

Paul Brown went close in the 13th minute when he got his head to a deep Gary Haveron cross but the angle was very tight and he could only head it into the side netting. The visitor’s did draw level through Mark Picking when he slammed the ball into the roof of the net after Darren Fitzgerald’s shot took a wild deflection and spun across the face of goal. United went ahead two minutes later when Scates fired a first-time dipping shot over McFredrick after Aidan Watson blocked an attempted clearance by McMahon and the ball dropped perfectly for his team mate.

The Sky Blues had skipper Albert Watson to thank for a goal line clearance after Lewis Hamlin’s back post header beat Murphy in the 22nd minute. United could then have gone further ahead just on the half hour mark when Aidan Watson burst through and slipped the ball to Fitzgerald who timed his run to beat the offside trap but McFredrick did well to come off his line and block the shot at the expense of a corner.

It was a commanding performance by exciting young prospect Eamonn Murray in the Glenavon midfield.

Okunaiya and Hawthorne combined in the 34th minute to set up a shooting chance from the edge of the box for Murray but his goal-bound effort was blocked by the head of Simon Kelly the United centre half. Cowan then crashed a header off the bar from the resulting corner with United forced to concede another corner from which the Glenavon defender had a shot from 12 yards held on the line.

McMahon’s misplaced pass early in the second half allowed Scates to pick up the ball and play in Fitzgerald and his shot across the goal was only inches wide of the far post.

Glenavon's Ormand Okunaiya tangles with United's  Craig McClean

Just after the hour mark Walsh played the ball into the run of Murray. He sidestepped a couple of challenges and unleashed a powerful 20 yard shot that Murphy, at full stretch , pushed around the post for a corner. McDonnell hit the bar with a header from Hamlin’s corner with Murray just unable to find the space to strike the loose ball through a crowded six yard box.

McFredrick saved brilliantly from Picking’s 69th minute shot after Haveron crossed from the left wing but Fitzgerald could have tapped in the rebound if he had not slipped at the crucial moment and the ball slid wide of the back post. Five minutes later Picking hit the post with a low drive from the corner of the box after Watson and Reid combined.

United skipper Albert Watson saw red in the 76th minute when he hauled back Lewis Hamlin just outside the box as the striker raced onto McFredrick’s long clearance but United’s ten men doubled the lead and clinched the points when substitute Lee Patrick squared the ball low across the area to an unmarked Scates and he hammered the ball low into the opposite corner for his second of the game.