Wins for Carrick, Crues and Ports on final day

They were made to pay soon after as Finley Thorndike opened the scoring with a fine individual goal, skipping past a number of defenders before beating Declan Breen at his near post with a low drive.

Three minutes later it was 2-0, Thomas Maguire scoring his first goal of season from the penalty spot after he had been upended inside the penalty area.

Things went from bad to worse for the visitors as Joel Thompson inadvertently put the ball in his own net as he struggled to clear after Brendan Hamilton's spectacular shot crashed off the crossbar to make it 3-0.

Ballymena United came close to pulling a goal back when Jack O'Reilly set up O'Connor, but the winger's effort rebounded to safety off the base of a post.

The goal they had been threatening arrived just before the break when Edogun made up for his earlier miss with a tap-in from close range after Crusaders failed to deal with a free-kick.

The big striker netted his second of the afternoon 10 minutes after the restart, again capitalising on some poor Crusaders defending to score from six yards out, but that was that for the Braidmen.

Ports see off Seasiders

The visitors took an early lead after just eight minutes when James Teelan's low, shot was parried by Gareth Deane straight into the path of Eamon Fyfe, who finished from close range.

Bangor got back into it when Jay Boyd was teed up by Iestyn Hughes and finished first time to level the game after a quarter of an hour.

The Ports responded and Ben Quinn, who had entered the game early for an injured Shay McCartan, was teed up by Teelan to stab one past Deane from a narrow angle to send his side in ahead at the break.

The second half was largely a slow affair with Boyd having the best chance when he headed Stephen McGuinness' pinpoint cross into the side netting.

He was then replaced by Michael Halliday with 10 minutes remaining as the Irish League icon bowed out of the local game aged 46 and in his 27th season.

There was a late flurry of action in stoppage time with three goals, albeit none for Halliday.

First, Josh Ukek finished low and hard from a narrow angle before Daniel Hannan netted a stunning long-range effort for his first senior goal.

There was still time for Teelan to get the goal his performance deserved as he finished well with the last kick of the game.