The form of the two teams going into this match could scarcely have been more different, Ballymena unbeaten in eleven games and Glenavon hoping to avoid a tenth straight league defeat. The contrast also extended to the managerial front, with Sky Blues boss Tommy Wright turning down a move back to full-time football in England with Norwich City and the Lurgan Blues without a manager following the dismissal of Colin Malone just over a week ago.

Glenavon started with newly-signed striker Trevor Molloy partnering David Bracken up front. Neal Gawley was missing after his hamstring tightened up in the New Year’s Day defeat to Dungannon Swifts so Paul Walsh, who is waiting for an operation on his troublesome shoulder, made a surprise return to the bench. Glenavon’s other new signing, Andrew Hageman, also had to be content with a place amongst the subs. For the hosts Albert Watson missed out with a knee injury and Stephen Lowry came in on the right wing in place of Mark Picking who dropped to the bench.

The opening 20 minutes was fairly evenly balanced with Glenavon having two or three shots on target, all fairly comfortable saves for Paul Murphy but the home side failed to test his namesake Tuda at the other end.

In the 21st minute Conor Walsh poked the ball through to Molloy but his shot from 20 yards was too weak to trouble the home keeper. Four minutes later Harper fed Molloy on the left and he tricked his way into the box to cut the ball back from the bye-line with Haveron, in for the injured Watson, clearing the danger at the near post. As Conor Walsh picked up an injury in a tackle with Flynn in the centre circle, Glenavon played on and won a corner from which McDonnell headed wide with Harper looking like he was in better position as he made a late run. Unable to continue, Walsh limped off in the 33rd minute and this gave Hageman his chance for a first appearance in the Glenavon shirt.

McMahon had yet another shot for the visitors in the 37th minute but again it went straight into the gloves of Murphy. Lee Patrick then fed a great pass out to King and Hageman did brilliantly to stoop and somehow head the former Linfield winger’s cross out from under the bar in the 40th minute but the ball was immediately played back by King to Kelbie. Fortunately his weak toe poke posed no problem for Murphy.

In a second half of few chances, most of the action took place in the last ten minutes or so. In the 84th minute Molloy almost gave the Lurgan Blues what probably would have been a deserved lead as they finished strongly when his shot grazed the outside of the post with Murphy beaten after Harper rolled the ball into him just inside the United box. Kevin Kelbie also went close when he picked up the ball from substitute Cushley only to see his fierce shot fly just over the bar in the 86th minute. It was Molloy’s turn again seconds later with a snap shot from the edge of the area that wasn’t far off target but in the end a well-organized display from the Lurgan Blues saw the fans head off on the journey back to Lurgan well satisfied with the performance and glad to see the end of that dreadful losing streak.

Post-match Interview

Speaking after the game, caretaker Manager Alan Frazer was most pleased with the clean sheet "Everybody was coming down here thinking, after nine defeats in a row, expecting another defeat but I just said to the lads they have to show commitment and battle and, if they do that, there's quite a bit of ability there but, of late they hadn't been applying it and probably not getting the breaks. Today we worked hard and deserved a point and there were spells in the game when we could have taken all three points.

"Molloy almost won it with that effort that clipped the post and he probably deserved a goal for his efforts today. It was his first competitive game in four months but I thought he was the difference in the sense of holding the ball up for us and his experience alone was helping players.

"Probably the most pleasing thing for me, as an ex-fullback, was the performance of wee Kris McAdam, who is only sixteen, and I thought he nullified Stuart King, especially in the second half.

"I said to the players in there it's all about them. It's not about me or coaches, it's about those guys who earned it today and that's what I expect every week and that's what the Club expects and that's what they are paid for: to give commitment and to battle."