He brought instant success to the Braid, as Ballymena finished third and won the Irish Cup in 1957–58. The 1958 Irish Cup winning team was deemed one of the best Ballymena United teams ever to grace the Showgrounds, as they deservedly beat Jackie Milburn's Linfield in the showpiece final – with McGhee and Russell scoring the goals in a 2–0 win at the Oval in front of 24,000 spectators. The next year, with another impressive team marched onto another Irish Cup final (their eighth final); the Sky Blues were expected to beat Glenavon in a Windsor Park final. However United's bad luck struck again as they failed to beat Glenavon, only drawing 1–1 and were defeated 2–0 in the replay. Former Liverpool legend, Geoff Twentyman, then came along as manager and brought the Ulster Cup to the Showgrounds in 1960 with a 3–1 win over Glenavon. Barr grabbed two final goals while McKinstry picked up the other. The following season, the Sky Blues were only two points away from winning the Irish League for the first time – finishing third in 1961–62. Twentyman's success did not continue and he was replaced in time by George Smith, Dave Hickson, Alex Parker, and Dave Hickson again. Despite this hunt for success manager after manager failed, as the Braidmen constantly finished mid-table in the Irish League, with only one trophy in the 1960s. McCrae was then brought back to end another period of failure at the Warden Street Showgrounds The rollercoaster seventies (1970–1978) The Sky Blues reached an Irish Cup Final in 1970 as a mere 12,000, just over half the average Irish Cup final attendance in those days, watched United fall 2–1 to Linfield at Solitude. Fleming grabbed an early goal which proved United's un-doing as they then mistakenly tried to sit back and defend out the remainder of the game. Incidentally this was Linfield's last game at Solitude for over a quarter of a century, due to civil unrest. The other interesting point is that it was the first Irish Cup Final with substitutes – Nicholl filled that role for United. Next came a colourful time in United's history as one of the most 'colourful' and arguably one of the most talented of United's players – Sammy Frickelton was appearing at the Showgrounds to the delight of many fans. Scottish born Frickelton was followed by controversy but was still an exciting