One-point win pushes Ballymena to second on table

Dungannon 12 Ballymena 13

High-flying Ballymena lifted themselves one point shy of the top of the Division One table with the slenderest of victories in the big Ulster derby at Stevenson Park.

Dungannon struck first with a Seamus Mallon try on 23 minutes, the product of a superb move involving Jamie Turkington, Mark Armstrong and full back Peter Sandford.

But after Sandford was sin-binned three minutes later, Ballymena struck back with a try, number 8 Derek Topping getting the touchdown.

Aidan Kearney grabbed a second Dungannon try in first half injury time to send the home side in with a 12-7 lead.

But the second half belonged to Ballymena, and but for some inspired defensive work, they could have had a hatful of tries.

Matt Waterhouse narrowed the gap with a 10th minute penalty, and despite losing prop Stephen McConnell to the sin-bin, they continued to dominate.

Another Waterhouse penalty proved to be the decisive score, but Dungannon could have stolen it, late opportunities falling to Armstrong, who was off target with penalty and drop goal attempts.

Dungannon: P Sandford, N Suiter, S Mallon, A Clarke, J McGuckin, M Armstrong, J Turkington, R Mackey, N Brady, M Farquhar, A Kearney, K Walker, S Roberts, A Hughes, T Barker.

Replacements: C Farrell for Roberts, A Boyd for Hughes, G Leslie for Mackey.

Ballymena: A Hood, P Spence, R Aiono, H Jones, H Swift, M Waterhouse, A Monson, N McKernan, P Shields, B Young, M McCullough, D O'Kane, J Taggart, S Rodgers, D Topping. Replacements: S McConnell for McKernan, P Rodgers for Spence.

Referee: A McKay (Ulster Branch).