United back from the dead to seal a point

United were caught early in the first five minutes, a cross found James Wright unmarked to slot the ball past Ryan Martin.

There was period of good football by both teams but Ballymoney failed to capitalise on early chances.

Ballymoney’s heads appeared to drop and on 23 minutes it went from bad to worse when Stephen Doyle again unmarked chipped the ball over the advancing Martin.

Again the visitors were caught at the back, Wright got in behind the defence and squared the ball to Darren Fitzgerald who made no mistake, blasting home past Martin to make it 3-0 to the hosts.

Ballymoney came back into the game for a period, a cross by Keane was headed onto McKenna who blasted wide.

Gerard Gillan was then denied when he breached the Ards defence but the goalkeeper was on hand to make the block.

Approaching half-time a brilliant save by Martin prevented Doyle from adding another.

Five minutes into the second half McLaughlin found Randal Reid who made no mistake driving the ball past Munn

A great header on my Mark Gillan from a goal kick found Lee McClelland who fired home in off the post.

It was all Ballymoney at this stage, Liam Kearney should have scored when through but struck the outstretched ‘keeper’s legs.

McClelland was on hand again when a long kick from Martin found Reid who in turn played in the midfield man who let fly from 20 yards.

The blistering shot took a slight deflection off a defender and nestled in the Ards net to seal an unlikely point.

Manager Joe McCall said the game was a stark illustration of the old adage of a game of two halves.

“It was a case of being too respectful to them and not believing in ourselves in the first half,” McCall told Times Sport.

“In the first half we weren’t at the game but had two good chances but apart from that we didn’t get a kick.

“To be fair they deserved to be 3-0 up at the break.

“At half-time I let people know exactly what was required and you could say at 3-0 down we had nothing to lose. At that point you might as well go for it.

“I brought Liam Kearney on and he gave us a lot of energy in the middle of the park.

“We pushed them higher up the pitch and got a good goal through Randal Reid which brought us back into the game. At half-time I said that the next goal was important. If we scored we might have a chance but if they scored it could end up a cricket score.

“That goal gave us a big boost. We kept at them and forced them into making mistakes. Throughout the second half we were excellent. ”I was very pleased to get the win. That is going to be a very tough place to go and get points this season.”

McCall was delighted with new signing Reid and another debutant Chris Getty.

He said: “For a while I’ve been saying I haven’t got a striker who can get 20 goals a season but I think Randal could do just that.

“When he gets into the box you know the keeper is going to be made to work. I was very impressed with him on and off the ball.

“Chris Getty was also excellent at centre back, very solid.”