Ballinamallard manager Gavin Dykes has revealed that he will lose leading scorer Adam Lecky in January with the player set to spend a year in Australia.
The Mallards have known about Lecky’s decision for some time now and Dykes already has plans in place to bring a number of new faces to Ferney Park during the January window as he looks to strengthen ahead of the second half of the season.
Lecky has flourished in a new striker role this season and has registered six goals to date with Dykes admitting that he will be a big loss.
“Adam has made a commitment that he is going to Australia in January so he is going to be a massive loss to us as he has been excellent for us in every way.
 “He has decided to go for the year and we wish him the best of luck. In fairness to him, he let us know early on, we sat down and had a chat for him and he didn’t want to leave us in the lurch so he is going in January when the window is open,” said Dykes.
The Mallards boss though is confident of getting players in to bolster his squad in the January window with a couple of deals close to being agreed.
“We are trying to strengthen and hopefully we can do that. 
“There are a couple of players who hopefully in the next week or two we will have agreed with, I think we need that.
“I’ve also spoken to a few managers about getting a couple of lads in on loan but as I said before it has to be right for the player and the club. Anybody that will be coming in on a permanent deal, it will be for the rest of this year and next year. That’s the sort of commitment we will be looking for.
“There has been a lot of work put in behind the scenes and it is not just over this least couple of weeks, it has been since the transfer window opened. We knew there were players that we couldn’t get at the start of the season but we decided to go back and speak to them for January and hopefully that will work out.”
Prior to that though is a big month on the pitch for the Mallards, starting on Friday with a clash against an Ards side who like the Mallards have been struggling for results recently.
Ballinamallard defeated Ards back in September and both sides will feel that this is an opportunity to stop the rot they are currently in.
“I see Niall Currie says that it is a game that they are targeting as one they can win, and it’s definitely a game that we can get something out of. 
“We’ve beaten them already and although they’ve done well, they are not on a great run, much like us, so it is an opportunity for us to maybe go and have a go at them. We believe we can get a result and we’ll be fairly positive in the team that we pick. 
“We’ve set our stall our recently to stop conceding goals and it has worked to a certain extent. I’ve been very happy with the way things have gone but even though we are away from home I think we have to have a go at them and we can get three points out of it if we play well, I really believe that,” stated Dykes.
The Mallards go into the game sitting second from bottom of the table but a win would lift them back above Carrick with a game in hand while they would also pull Ards that little bit closer.
“We are a point behind Carrick but we have an opportunity on Friday night to get a positive result and go back above them. 
“Also, if we were to get three points it pegs Ards back as well, it would leave us six points behind them with a game in hand. It is going to be a very difficult game on Friday night but I’m confident we can go and get a result,” he added.
The Mallards will be without the suspended Shane McCabe while Ryan Morris will be out for six weeks following an operation on his hand. Dykes is hopeful though that Ryan McConnell will be fit for the game.
Last Saturday’s game against Glenavon was called off with referee Evan Boyce deeming that the pitch was unplayable due to it being too hard. 
However, Dykes was disappointed with that decision and felt that the game should have gone ahead.
“He came and inspected it and he said that the ground was hard and that he reckoned it would put the players safety at risk,” said Dykes. “Myself and Gary Hamilton (Glenavon manager) had a look at it and in my opinion it was hard in places but it was definitely playable. The referee went to put a key into the pitch and he felt the key was hard to get in but Gary put a key in all over the pitch and it went it. I was out on it earlier in the day and I didn’t see it being at risk at all. I thought the fog might be an issue but it wasn’t that. The referee has to do what he has to do and we have no choice in it.”