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Uploaded Saturday, 29th Jul, 2023 at 19:00
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Date: Saturday, 29th July, 2023; Competition: Friendly; Attendance: N/A;
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Knockbreda
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[0]
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[1]
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Ballymena United
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[2]
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[2]
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Venue: Breda Park; Kick-Off: 15:00;
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Goals:
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[0-1] WAIDE, Ryan (16 mins), [0-2] PLACE, Michael (25 mins), [1-2] N/A (80 mins)
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BALLYMENA United rounded off their pre-season campaign ahead of the start of the new league season next week with a 2-1 victory over Knockbreda at Breda Park on Saturday.
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Following yesterday's announcement of three new arrivals, Sam Johnston started the game between the sticks, no longer as a Trialist, whilst Marc Walsh also got a start and TJ Murray made the bench.
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The Braidmen continued a trend in pre-season of going ahead early on against their Belfast opposition who finished bottom of the Championship last season, when Steven McCullough's cross to the back post was diverted in by Ryan Waide, who has had a promising few games in July.
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Nine minutes later the Sky Blues had a second goal thanks to Michael Place. After the visitors were awarded a penalty, Place saw his effort saved, but he was able to finish on the rebound for 2-0 at the break.
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There wasn't much to get excited about in the second half, with Jim Ervin making a host of changes throughout the second period to get those last minutes into players legs before next Friday night. Amongst those changes, both goalscorers were replaced late on as Lewis Tennant replaced Place and Waide went off for George Tipton.
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With ten minutes to go the home side got themselves back into the game with a late goal, but United saw out the 2-1 win to give them a positive end to pre-season, with all attention now focused on the league's curtain raiser on Friday in the A26 derby with Coleraine.
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Ballymena United get their league campaign underway on Friday evening when they travel to the Ballycastle Road to face Coleraine in the Sports Direct Premiership, kicking off at 7:45pm.
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Match Report by Phillip McPeake
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Ballymena United Team:
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Sam Johnston, Caleb Crawford, Scot Whiteside (  Jordan McMullan 67), Colin Coates, Trialist A ( Kym Nelson 63), Steven McCullough, Jordan Gibson ( Fiontan O'Boyle 63), Michael Place ( Lewis Tennant 76), Ryan Waide ( George Tipton 79), Marc Walsh ( Kenneth Kane 63), Johnny McMurray.
Subs not used: Sean O'Neill, TJ Murray, Trialist D.
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