Ballinamallard manager Gavin Dykes was far from happy following Saturday’s defeat to Ballymena United at Ferney park but the one thing that did please him was the performance of his team.
“Football wise and possession wise that was as good as we have been. We found ourselves two goals down all of a sudden from a disputed penalty and possibly an offside goal with on of their players in an offside position. But we did not lie down and the boys had a crack at it but I would say that that you can’t wait for things to happen you have to go and make it happen,” acknowledged Dykes who also thought the free in the lead to the Ballymena third goal was harsh.
He rued: “When you are down at the bottom, things go like that sometimes.”
Dykes was also pretty angry at the treatment meted out young winger Niall Owens.
“I am really annoyed about it, when we send out a young player we have a duty of acre to look after him and we had to take him off because he was injured. He was systematically fouled by different players throughout the game and the referees are going to have to start protecting him. He is definitely out of this week’s game and he may miss the Northern Ireland U19 international next week which I know he cares passionately about. It’s just not right,” explained Dykes.
Next up for Ballinamallard is Ards on Saturday again at Ferney park and while there are no must win games at this early stage of the season, Dykes realises that Ards are one of the teams in the bottom half of the table mini-league and hence it is a game his charges need to win.
“We are in a mini-league and Ards is one of those teams in that league also, so that is why we need to win it. Things are tight at the bottom and there is a five point gap to get out of the bottom two, so three points would mean a lot” he explained before adding.
“As I said, we had an improved performance on Saturday but did not get the result but this week really is about getting the three points which will be of more importance than the performance. If we could get that first win on the board, then I would hope more would follow. It happened like that last year.”
Dykes says that the mood in the camp is good despite the tough start.
“We have a young team and it definitely hurts them when they lose but the morale is good and we all know we just have to get on with it. We know a win against Ards would be psychologically massive and it would be great to get on a bit of a run,” concluded the manager.