Richard Brush is only nine games into his Ballinamallard career, but his match winning performances have already earned him huge praise throughout the Irish League.

The goalkeeper was signed in January from Finn Harps and he made an instant impression with a man of the match performance in the penalty shoot-out defeat to Warrenpoint in the Irish Cup.

Fans have continued to sing his praises as he has played a huge part in the team’s revival, culminating in a match winning penalty save against Cliftonville on his last Ferney Park outing.

Richard admits he has been delighted with how things have gone since his debut.

“I’m very happy,” he said.

“I had come into the team and they were already on an upward curve and had turned the corner, so it made it easier for me that I wasn’t coming into a team that was getting battered off the park every week.

“I am happy with the way things have turned out since then as well. To get a couple of clean sheets is always a bonus but you are always only one game away from your season turning the other way.

“Just before the penalty save I came flapping for a cross and luckily it went wide. That is how close you are. It could easily have come off someone and bounced into the net, so you are only one minute away from your fortunes turning, so I won’t big myself up just yet!”

Richard had made his name in the League of Ireland playing for Shamrock Rovers and Sligo Rovers before switching to Finn Harps.

His former connections with Gavin Dykes made him an early target for the new manager, but it took six months before he managed to get his man to Ferney Park.

“When Gavin knew he was taking over as manager he was on to me almost straight away while I was at Finn Harps, but he understood that I had got commitments there that I wanted to see out, but it was more or less agreed that I would be straight up once the (League of Ireland) season was done,” revealed Richard.

“I thoroughly enjoyed myself at Finn Harps but I am working full time now in Sligo where I live so this suits better in my situation.

“It was obviously partly to work with Gavin as well. I have worked with him for over 10 years and it is a new start for me. It is nice to get something fresh and do something new.”

Richard signed an 18 month contract that will take him up to the next of next season, and he has no regrets about making the switch.

“Everyone has been very welcoming,” he said.

“You are going into a club that has been hovering above the relegation zone so you don’t know how it’s going to be, but it is a great changing room. They are a good bunch of lads and a good mix of youth and experience as well. Things are going well, although we did take a bit of a kick in the teeth on Friday. Hopefully it was just a bit of a blip. It’s not nice to lose 3-0 at any time but you know when you are winning you can’t get carried away. You are a game away from a downfall which is what happened on Friday, but it might be a bit of a needed reality check if anyone was thinking about getting carried away with how we were going.

“Hopefully we can get back to playing how we have in the last few weeks and put Friday behind us.”

“We set our stall out and we know we won’t play teams off the park at the minute, but we are hardworking and we catch teams on the counter and when we get it down we can play a bit.

“We need to keep working hard and grind out a few more results before the end of the season and hopefully keep adding points and keep climbing away from the bottom two,” he concluded.