Chris Scannell celebrates scoring his hat-trick

Cliftonville took advantage of dismal Ballymena defending to start their league campaign with a 5-1 victory.

Neil Teggart gave Ballymena the lead with a second minute glancing header but Francis Murphy volleyed home to level the score on the half hour.

Teggart had further chances before Rory Hamill shot low into the corner on 41 and Chris Scannell fired home after 43.

Scannell slotted in his second on 49 and then tapped into an empty net after Alan Blayney dropped a corner on 54.

Stuart King supplied the corner for Teggart's early opener but Teggart then saw his point-blank effort well saved by John Connolly.

After 30 minutes, George McMullan fired in a corner, Davy McAlinden headed across goal and Murphy scored after Kevin Kelbie miskicked his clearance.

Kelbie put Teggart through on goal but his shot found the sidenetting and soon after Hamill put the Reds ahead with a shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the area.

Scannell pounced on poor defending to score either side of the break and United again failed to clear Francis Murphy's corner for the goal that provided Scannell with his hat-trick.