Ballymena players must ‘wake up’ to avoid relegation, blasts Jim Ervin after Carrick loss

Ballymena United 0 Carrick Rangers 2

Jim Ervin has seen his Ballymena United team endure a dry run in front of goal that continued against Carrick Rangers

Ballymena United boss Jim Ervin has told his players they must “wake up” if they are have any chance of moving up the Premiership table after watching his team fail to score for a sixth successive game.

Only goal difference is keeping the Sky Blues off the bottom and it was all too easy for Carrick Rangers to complete a 2-0 victory on Friday night at the Showgrounds, thanks to a 28th minute penalty from David Cushley and a ninth goal of the season from Danny Purkis with the last kick of the match.

“If you don’t take your chances you don’t win games,” said an unimpressed Ervin.

“In the first half we totally outplayed them but were hit by a sucker punch. We didn’t deal with the long ball and it’s a blatant penalty. We then huffed and puffed in the second half, I put on two extra strikers but Carrick won every first ball, every second ball.

“I am not too worried about the second goal because we were pushing and pushing and it was literally the last kick of the ball. But they were more streetwise, they knew when to kill the game, take the sting out of it. Our boys need to wake up and learn very, very quickly.”

It was the experience of Curtis Allen who won the penalty kick but, as Ervin added: “It was a nothing ball, he had no right to win it, we allowed him to do it. And that was the difference between the teams. They took their chance and Danny was clinical at the end.

"But when we get into those positions we don’t take them.”

Opposite number Stuart King was delighted with the clean sheet – only their second of the season – as much as the victory which lifted them, at