Carrick move up to seventh with victory as Ballymena’s goal drought continues
Ballymena United 0 Carrick Rangers 2
David Cushley grabbed Carrick's opening goal at Ballymena
Goals from David Cushley and Danny Purkis lifted Carrick Rangers up to seventh in the Premiership table as Ballymena United’s goal drought continued.
The worry for Ballymena boss Jim Ervin is that his team, who remain level on points at the bottom with Newry City, are not even creating goal scoring chances and Carrick found it much too easy to protect their 28th minute lead.
It’s now more than eight hours since the Sky Blues have scored and they have failed to win any of their last seven Premiership games, while this was Carrick’s first success in their last five.
So no-one was expecting a classic at The Showgrounds and, unsurprisingly, it needed a penalty to break the deadlock in the 28th minute, although Allen deserves a lot of credit for winning it.
Latching onto a long ball from Cushley, he was on his own against two Ballymena defenders with nowhere to go but he knocked the ball against the outstretched arm of Scot Whiteside and referee Shane Andrews immediately pointed to the spot.
Cushley sent former Crusaders team-mate Sean O’Neill the wrong way to give Carrick the lead.
It should have been two in stoppage time at the end of the first-half when O’Neill ran out of his goal but missed the ball, leaving Purkis with a clear shot at an empty net but, from the edge of the box, he ballooned the ball over the bar.
Fraser Taylor had Ballymena’s only two efforts before the interval, the first after a good run from Donal Rocks who cut the ball back from the by-line into the midfielder’s path but he shot wastefully over from 15 yards and then tamely shot straight at keeper Ross Glendinning.
Carrick continued to pose any of the
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