Kane scores on 500th appearance as Glens beat Ballymena
Kane scores on 500th appearance as Glens beat Ballymena
Stephen Alexander - BBC Sport NI contributorFri, August 21, 2026 at 9:02 PM UTC
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Irish Premiership
Ballymena United 0 - 2 Glentoran FT
Glentoran scored twice in the last 10 minutes to record a 2-0 Irish Premiership victory over Ballymena United at the Showgrounds.
Aaron McEneff's Panenka-style penalty with nine minutes left broke the deadlock in a game which looked to be heading towards a scoreless stalemate.
Skipper Marcus Kane, who was making his 500th Irish League appearance, wrapped up the points for the Glens in stoppage time with a powerful near post header.
It was the perfect response for Glentoran to their defeat by rivals Linfield last weekend but it's now back-to-back defeats for Ballymena since their impressive opening day win at Windsor Park.
The first real opening of the game fell to Ballymena on 12 minutes when Chris McKee intercepted a Ryan Cooney pass and slipped the ball into the path of strike partner Igor Rutkowski. The frontman immediately fired a shot which Glentoran keeper Billy Crellindived to his right to palm away.
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Glentoran carved out an opening on 23 minutes when Josh Daniels' tenacity to keep the ball in on the bye-line saw his dig out a cross which was met at full stretch by the in-rushing Ross Clarke, forcing Ballymena keeper David Walsh to make an unorthodox save with his shoulder.
Ballymena had another half-chance with the final action of the first period when Crellin raced from his goal to head the ball clear outside his area but Charlie Allen couldn't keep his volley on target.
The second half struggled to find any real direction with James Hood meeting an Allen free kick, forcing Crellin to dive low to his left to palm the ball away.
But just as it looked as though the game might drift to a scoreless stalemate, Glentoran struck the decisive blow with nine minutes left.
Referee Steven Gregg awarded a penalty after adjudging that grounded United defender Scot Whiteside had blocked Ben Gallagher's shot with his outstretched arm and McEneff produced a nerveless chipped penalty straight up the middle of the goal.
The visitors were buoyed by this and finished the game strongly with Walsh making saves in quick succession to deny Marcus Kane and James Singleton.
But Glentoran weren't to be denied a second with Kane netting a second goal in added time with a powerful near post header from McEneff's corner.
Source: “AOL Sports”
