NEWRY WIN BASEMENT BATTLE SIX POINTER
A goal in each half saw Newry City pick up a crucial three points on the road at Ballymena United.
The bottom two sides going into the game, Newry drew first blood on 19 minutes when Adam Salley got past keeper Sean O'Neill to nod home an Adam Carroll cross from the right at close range.
And the visitors might have doubled their advantage just before the break after Ciaran O'Connor got on the end of a loose ball to test O'Neill with a low shot that the home keeper touched onto an upright.
Ballymena's cause wasn't helped early in the second half when they were reduced to ten men when Corrie Burns was involved in a tussle with Carroll for which he collected his second caution of the afternoon.
Newry suffered a dismissal themselves midway through the second half when Ryan McGivern also received a second booking of the game following a foul on Isaac Westendorf.
But with Ballymena pushing for an equaliser the game was settled as a contest with six minutes remaining when Lee Newell hit Newry's second on the counter attack after cutting inside and curling the finish past O'Neill.
Ballymena United: O’Neill, Nelson, Burns, Rocks, Whiteside, Coates, McCullough, McGuigan, Taylor, McMurray, Boyle subs Johnston, O’Boyle, Murray, Tennant, Place, Stewart, Westendorf
Newry City: Maguire, N. Healy, McGivern, McKeown, O’Connor, Carroll, Hughes, Lockhart, Salley, Bagnall, Poynton subs Murphy, Martin, Moan, B. Healy, Forde, Newell, Mooney
Substitution 
Substitution 
