Irish Premiership: Larne edge past Ballymena United as Portadown beat Crusaders

The home side struck first in the eighth minute. There initially appeared to be little danger as Matty Lusty collected the ball on the right-hand side with plenty of Ballymena players in front of him but he surged past them before cutting the ball across the face of goal for the in-rushing Magee to sweep a shot past Sean O’Neill.

The home side might well have doubled their advantage soon afterwards when Tomas Cosgrove ghosted in behind the Ballymena defence unmarked to meet Mark Randall’s free-kick, but he couldn’t keep his header on target.

Ballymena’s first effort came from Kennedy, who forced Rohan Ferguson to tip his rising drive over the crossbar.

The Sky Blues passed up a glorious chance to equalise on the stroke of half-time after Magee was adjudged to have clipped Kennedy on the edge of the box, but Ferguson dived to his right to palm away Kennedy’s poorly-struck spot kick.

Larne almost grabbed a second in first-half stoppage time when Magee anticipated Stephen O’Donnell’s headed back-pass, but his first-time half-volley cleared the crossbar with O’Neill stranded.

Ballymena dominated the opening stages of the second period, but Larne came close to doubling their lead on 64 minutes when substitute Conor McKendry’s shot rattled off the crossbar after he was teed up by Lusty.

McKendry then set up Tiarnan O’Connor, whose shot from an acute angle was beaten behind by O’Neill.

The home side eventually wrapped up the points deep in stoppage time when Bent seized upon a poor headed clearance from a free-kick and carefully guided a shot into the bottom corner.