Disgraceful scenes, managers having to be kept apart, players man-handled by fans as they attempted to return to the changing rooms and idiots throwing an assortment of missiles ranging from chairs to pieces of meat.

It would be laughable if it wasn't so lamentable.

Good luck to the IFA in their marketing campaigns to bring people back to the local game.

Whatever happened on the pitch to stoke the burning fires of hatred from the terraces is completely irrelevant.

We're lucky today that we're not talking about someone being maimed and as someone who has supported Ballymena United for over 30 years, that makes me deeply ashamed.

For a steward to allow someone into a football match with a piece of animal bone the size of football, beggars belief. The excuse that it was for his dog makes it absolutely incredible.

It is a day that should have been remembered for a cracking contest between two sides slugging it out for fourth spot in the league.

After the throwing of missiles and punches, the finger pointing from both camps continued after the game.

The IFA is likely to throw the book at all concerned and rightly so.

Referee Mark Courtney had to wait 20 minutes before four police cars arrived so he and his three assistants could be ushered back down a tunnel that had just been cleared of fans.

The Dungannon official, who had a torrid day in the middle, didn't deserve that. His assessor will judge his performance - although it's hard to argue with the two red cards he issued.

A seemingly never-ending issuing of yellow cards and more whistling than a guard at a train station, certainly didn't help the flow of a game that reached it's final destination at 5.15pm.

His big failing, in my opinion, was not to check on the condition of injured goalkeeper, Paul Murphy, when he went down after an innocuous looking challenge with Darren Armour.

He struggled to his feet, kicked the ball out so he could get treatment, and when play restarted, the Whites did not throw the ball back to the home side.

They don't have to. It may be an unwritten rule, but that's exactly what it is. Their crime is, at worst, being unsporting.

It may go against the spirit of the beautiful game but the scenes that followed at the end were far from beautiful.

Murphy was flattened by Nathan McConnell as the game passed 5.00pm, and needed hospital treatment. The striker, who said afterwards it was accidental, compounded the pain for the home side by popping up in the 10th minute of injury-time to grab a deserved draw.

It was cruel luck on the nine men in sky blue who performed heroically for 40 minutes.

They can hold their heads up high for their efforts. As for the fans - albeit only a minority, we mustn't forget - should hang theirs in shame.