While victories at the Oval have, remarkably, become almost the rule rather than the exception in recent seasons, winning at the home of the other half of the 'Big Two' has proved an entirely different nut for United to crack – with self-belief rather than ability being the major factor lacking.

Ballymena haven't won at both grounds in the same season since 1974 and there will scarcely be a more gilt-edged opportunity to end that particular statistic than Saturday's 1-0 defeat at Windsor Park.

Instead, Mark Miskimmin's goal in the final quarter meant that United have won just three of their last 36 meetings with Linfield at the national stadium.

The opportunity which had been spurned was not lost upon United boss Roy Walker, who pinpointed three pivotal moments which decided the outcome – a glaring miss by Orman Okunaiya when clean through on goal; the loss of dominant skipper Albert Watson to a head injury; and failure to deal with a routine defensive situation which led to the only goal.

"If we had a wee bit more about us – belief - we might have got something out of the game," said Walker.

"This is where the frustration lies – you've got to learn to take what comes your way but we didn't.

"I've told the players that they have to come to Windsor Park and believe they can win matches and not be happy simply to be average.

"I thought we were the better team by a mile in the first half. I don't know how many saves our goalkeeper had to make but it wasn't too many."

Having shaded a scoreless opening half – surviving their only scare just before the break when keeper Dwayne Nelson tipped Philip Lowry's effort onto the underside of the crossbar - United should have put the gloss on their work within a minute of the restart.

Okunaiya sprinted on to Andy Smith's pass but as he entered the penalty area, he attempted to dribble around the lengthy frame of Alan Blayney and the former United keeper smothered the ball.

"When we're one-on-one and the goalkeeper's lying on the ground, we should score at the start of the second half and change the game - you don't have to think about that, just hit it past him.

"The keeper had already committed himself, he was on the ground. From where I was, it was a side-foot into the net, just clip it past him."

United's hopes began to unravel with the loss of the revitalised Albert Watson with concussion after a sickening accidental clash of heads with Michael Gault.

And the killer blow was struck with 18 minutes left. A long diagonal ball from the right-back area by Jim Ervin was met with an unchallenged cushioned header by Paul Munster into the path of Miskimmin, who beat Nelson with an angled drive.

"Albert was a big loss, with his strength, he had been winning his personal battle and we didn't look as solid when he went off.

"Then we paid for a poor piece of defending, letting a striker run off a centre-back and he had all the time in the world.