Glentoran 1-3 Ballinamallard

Ballinamallard United slipped out of the Danske Bank Premiership after six seasons despite this defeat of Glentoran at The Oval.

In the end the Mallards' revival under Harry McConkey towards the end of the campaign proved to be too little, too late to avoid automatic relegation for the Ferney Park side.

The visitors had a big chance to race into the lead early on when, on nine minutes, James McKenna's goalbound header was cleared off the line.

However, they only had to a few minutes to move in front after Sean Noble nipped in as a hesitant defence left Dwayne Nelson exposed to touch a Colm McLaughlin pass into the net.

With the sides exchanging what amounted to a succession of half chances neither looked like adding to the scoreline until after the break when Curtis Allen saw a scrambled effort smothered by Richard Brush on the goalline.

The Mallards might have added to their lead just after the hour when Noble proceeded down the right before crossing for Ryan Curran but he couldn't keep his shot from going over.

But it did become 2-0 on 74 minutes when Noble doubled his tally after getting the final touch to an O'Flynn ball across the face of goal.

And, eight minutes after that, Joshua McIlwaine added a third with a clipped finish over the advancing Nelson.

Glentoran did grab a late consolation through Calum Birney's effort from the edge of the six yard box.