ALL SQUARE AT THE SHOWGROUNDS
Ballymena United and Cliftonville battled to an equal share of the points and goals at The Showgrounds.
United had the ball in the net inside the opening three minutes but Conor Keeley's 'goal' was ruled out after it was adjudged the ball had gone out of play.
The home side had a couple of other chances in the minutes that followed, both through Jude Winchester and both well saved by Aaron McCarey.
Cliftonville's first effort of note came on 18 minutes when Paul O'Neill got past a couple of defenders but Ross Glendinning comfortably dealt with his subsequent shot.
Ryan O'Reilly later send a looping header wide while, in first half stoppage time, Garry Breen fired over from a free-kick.
Both sides had their chances after the break but Ballymena looked the more likely to score as things progressed.
That was until the 76th minute, however. United keeper Ross Glendinning was ruled to have brought down Daire O'Connor inside the box and from the resulting spot-kick Ryan Curran stepped up to fire the visitors in front.
But Ballymena levelled with five minutes remaining with Shay McCartan bagging the late equaliser via a superb right footed curling effort into the top corner from around 35 yards.
Ballymena United: Glendinning, Winchester, McElroy, McCartan, McGrory, Hume, Keeley, Kelly, Graham, Wylie, McCready subs Williamson (not used), T. Kane (not used), Redman (replaced Graham 76), Knowles (not used), Waide (replaced McCready 76), Ervin (not used), Beattie (not used)
Cliftonville: McCarey, Breen, O'Reilly, C. Curran, R. Curran, Donnelly, Bagnall, Lowe, Kearns, O'Neill, Coffey subs Dunne (not used), Harney (not used), O'Connor (replaced Kearns 79), McCrudden (not used), Doherty (not used), Casey (not used), Hale (replaced Coffey 63)
Substitution 
Substitution 
