Momentum is clearly building for Harry McConkey and his Ballinamallard players as Saturday’s 2-0 win over Warrenpoint Town saw them close the gap to second bottom Carrick Rangers to two points with four games to go.
When McConkey took over less than a month ago the Mallards looked doomed as they sat seven points adrift of Carrick but the landscape has changed and a win and two draws from the four games under McConkey will have given the Mallards belief that they can go on and climb off the foot of the table before the season concludes.
Indeed, this week is a massive one in that regards with the Ducks facing Dungannon on Saturday before what could be a decisive meeting with Carrick at Ferney Park next Tuesday night.
As he has done though since taking over, McConkey is only looking to the next game and won’t even think about Carrick until the Swifts game is done and dusted.
“There is too much in the one game to think about, if your thoughts are on anything else at this stage it would be crazy. We have to really maximise every bit of information we have on Dungannon in order to try and counter them because they are a formidable outfit. 
“They have players all over the pitch that can cause you problems so all our energies have to go into this game and we can worry then afterwards about Carrick. And in some ways that’s a nice thing, it just simplifies it,” said McConkey.
And the Mallards boss says that they won’t be getting carried away with Saturday’s win over the ‘Point, instead they need to continue and try and build on recent results.
“We had a good days work last Saturday but we need another good days work this Saturday. There is no point in doing it for one day, you have to do it every match to the end of the season. 
“That’s why there is a strong focus on the present and just looking at the next game.
“All we are trying to do is get to a finish line step by step but not looking too far ahead. Don’t look at the top stair, just look at the next step and if you keep getting that next step you suddenly find yourself at the top of the stairs,” he stated.
Dungannon did Ballinamallard a favour last week when they defeated Carrick but McConkey expects them to be hungry again this Saturday as they look to impress manager Rodney McAree who put to bed any uncertainty surrounding his future at the club by signing a new three year deal to stay at Stangmore Park prior to the Carrick game.
“With Rodney signing a new three year contract the message was that he is the man to lead them forward and I would imagine that there are players in that team who are playing for contracts and playing to keep their place for next year. I would imagine that would be motivational for players and he got a response last week when his contract was announced because there was a cloud of uncertainty about the club and he dispelled that.”
The win over Warrenpoint  not only saw the Mallards heap the pressure on Carrick, it will also have given the side more belief that what they are doing is right and McConkey feels that it is the main positive to take out of the game as they move into these two big games.
“We had great respect for Warrenpoint and we showed that respect in how we prepared for them. We had a gameplan and we carried the gameplan out very, very well. 
“That to me cements everything for you. You try to cement all these bricks in the wall and when you get the result that’s the cement in-between and that’s the bit that’s vital. That’s the real positive, when you walk into the changing room afterwards and you say we knew what to expect, we knew how we would handle it and we did.”