Josh McIlwaine’s rich vein of goal scoring form continued on Tuesday night as he made it five goals in six games with the opener in the 1-1 draw against Glenavon at Ferney Park.

The striker has had to show patience and bide his time with Adam Lecky scoring for fun over the first half of the season but with Lecky gone for the remainder of the season after travelling to Australia, McIlwaine has grabbed his opportunity with both hands.

He netted his first of the season having come off the bench in the 2-1 win over Glentoran in the middle of December and he followed it up with another in the 3-2 defeat to Dungannon Swifts on Boxing Day.

And he has been impressive over the last week, firing both the goals in the 2-1 win over Carrick Rangers last Friday night before then heading home his fifth on the campaign on Tuesday night.

“I’m enjoying being in the team and I’m hoping that I can continue to score goals and stay in the team,” said McIlwaine.

“I’ve been training all season and Gavin gave me a chance when big Lecky left, so I’m just happy to get on the scoresheet. It’s been good and it has given me confidence.”

McIlwaine’s goals, especially over the last week, have proved crucial in the Mallards opening up a cushion between themselves and the bottom two and he says that his phone has been busier than normal over the last few days.

“The phone hasn’t stopped as I’ve had a lot of good messages from my family and friends. It’s been a good week,” he smiled.

His goal against Glenavon arrived in the 75th minute to put the home side ahead but they could not hold on for three points with the away side equalising in the 86th minute.

Josh admits that the team were disappointed not to come away with all three points on the night.

“We are all a bit disappointed not to have taken the three points. We never really got going in the first half but young Niall Owens came on and he pretty much changed the game. He put the ball straight on my head so he made the goal pretty easy for me. We would obviously have loved to have got the three points but we would have taken a point when the game was originally called off so although we’re disappointed not to have seen the game out, we’re happy with the point,” he added.

And McIlwaine is hopeful that the Mallards can maybe start to push on up the table in the coming weeks.

“We’ve been picking up points in recent week and we have been going well and it is another point gained for us tonight. We have a bit of space now between us and the bottom two but we want to keep that gap and maybe look at trying to catch Ards and move up the table,” he said.