Former Manchester United under 21 captain Ryan McConnell will be playing his football at Ferney Park this season, after manager Gavin Dykes raided his old clubs Finn Harps and Sligo Rovers to make three additions to the Ballinamallard squad this week.
Centre back McConnell will arrive on a one year loan deal, and will be joined by former Harps teammate Liam Flatley and Sligo’s Ross Taheny.
McConnell was released by Manchester United at the beginning of last season and was snapped up by Finn Harps in November, but made only one substitute appearance and has opted to pursue first team football with Ballinamallard. 
The 20 year old defender can play right back or centre back and has played alongside Northern Ireland international Paddy McNair at United.
Attacker Liam Flatley and defender Ross Taheny are also set to make the switch to Ballinamallard. 
19 year old Flatley broke into the Sligo Rovers first team in 2014. 
He made three league appearances for Sligo in 2015 before moving to Harps in February of this year, where he made nine appearances before moving to Ferney Park. 
He is also a former Irish international at Under 18 level.
Ross Taheny is another 19 year old former Republic of Ireland youth international who has been brought in to add further options in defence.
 He is a former captain of Sligo Rovers Under 19 team and has also captained the Irish Universities side.
New boss Gavin Dykes has worked with all three of the new players in the past and is delighted that they will joining the club once the paperwork formalities are completed. 
“I have worked with them all before and they are all top class,” he said. 
“When I took over the job I saw we needed some pace and some energy. 
“We had a problem in goals and we have strengthened that by bringing James McGrath back in, and all being well Ryan McConnell and Ross Taheny will strengthen all the areas around the back. Then we have Flatley and (Shane) McGinty who will improve things up front along with the other forward players.
“ I am quite happy with what we have.”
Dykes is also hoping to add another loan signing next week, and is trying to persuade a former youth player to return.
“Grant Hutchinson has been training with us and he will probably feature in few friendlies with us,” he revealed. 
“We are very keen to try and get him but Grant has a few options so we will have to wait and see what happens. If he became available we would be delighted to get him. I had hoped to get Stuart Hutchinson back as well but it looks as though he will stay with the PSNI which is quite disappointing, but we wish him the best of luck and I fully understand his decision.”
Three members of last year’s squad, Liam McMenamin, Cathal Beacom and John Currie are still in contract negotiations with the club, as is Shane McCabe. 
McCabe signed a two year deal at the start of the last campaign, but budget constraints within the club this season have thrown his future at the club in doubt.
“The story with Shane McCabe is very simple,” explained the manager.
 “At the moment he is contracted with Ballinamallard Football Club. 
Because there has been a decrease in the club’s budget the club have approached Shane to see if he would be agreeable to take a wage cut to help the club out. 
“At this present moment in time I know Shane is thinking about it and we will have another meeting about it. 
“I would like Shane to stay but unfortunately if it doesn’t fit into the budget then we will have to make Shane available. 
“Hopefully he will stay and we can come to an agreement.”
Despite the reduction in the money available for players Gavin has been impressed with the younger players in training, and has no fears about the quality of the squad he will bring into the season. 
“It is very tight budget wise compared to what it was last year, but plenty of the young lads have done very well at training,” he said. 
Having played their first pre-season game on Wednesday against Fivemiletown, Ballinamallard will continue their preparations for the new season with a match at home against Abbey Villa at 2pm this Saturday.