Glenavon boss Gary Hamilton says ill-discipline and two moments of “madness” from senior players cost the Lurgan Blues a crucial win at the Ballymena Showgrounds on Saturday.
Red cards for defender Danny Wallace and midfielder Robert Garrett came back to haunt the visitors who twice led but had to settle for a 3-3 draw at the Warden Street venue.
Wallace picked up a second yellow card on the hour mark for his part in an ugly melee which also saw United defender Conor Keeley receive his marching orders.
And Garrett saw red in the 71st minute after appearing to kick out at an opponent just two minutes after Conor McCloskey had fired Glenavon into a 3-2 lead.
Ballymena capitalised on their one man advantage against the nine men when Paul McElroy levelled things up with his 12th goal of the season in the 80th minute.
“They’ll get hit in the pockets for it, that’s for sure,” Hamilton told Glenavon’s YouTube channel.
“They’re two great lads and I love them to bits, but wrong is wrong no matter what way you look at it and they have to be dealt with.
“They let their teammates down and they let the club down. Their teammates ended up grafting and sitting in for 20 minutes towards the end of the game. It wasn’t fair on them.
"When your teammates work so hard and get yourselves in such a good position, nobody should be letting them down. They should know better in those situations.”
Hamilton was particularly frustrated by Garrett’s red card midway through the second half, an offence that will see him sit out Glenavon’s next three games.
It came just seven weeks after the 33-year-old picked up a straight red card against Portadown, an incident that also reduced Glenavon to nine men in a recent 1-0 derby win at Shamrock Park.
“You should know when we’re 3-2 up and it’s 10 against 10, you don’t kick out at somebody on the ground, it’s simple,” said Hamilton.
“Ribsy (Garrett) missed three games after the Portadown game and now we’re going to miss him for another three games. He’s a big player and we can’t afford that.
“He’s missing six big games for us at a crucial stage of the season and he has to learn from that. It’s not as if he’s a young lad.
“He is an experienced pro who has been about the league for years and I was really disappointed today.
“Conor scored a great goal to put us 3-2 up and at that stage I thought we were comfortable and cruising, but all of a sudden there was a moment of madness.”
Hamilton had no complaints about Wallace's second yellow card after the summer signing from Warrenpoint Town got involved in the second-half flashpoint.
“Danny Wallace, who has been outstanding for us this year, stupidly runs the length of the pitch on a yellow card and gets another yellow card,” he said.
“Deservedly so. You can’t run that length of the pitch (to get involved). I can’t evaluate the match any other way and I have to be honest.
“It was a game I felt we should have come away with three points and what has cost us the three points is the two players getting sent off in moments of madness.”
Glenavon would have leapfrogged Ballymena with a win, but remain eighth in the table, a point below the Sky Blues in seventh and five behind sixth-placed Coleraine.
