12 new faces in Ballinamallard squad

With the bulk of last season’s squad gone and a new look pool of players being bedded down, McConkey acknowledges that it will take the Mallards time to find their feet.

On top of that, the league is going to be highly competitive with the big guns Portadown and ambitious Larne aiming for promotion along with a handful of other sides.

So for McConkey, while the aim is to finish as high up the Championship table as possible, this season is about stabilisation and laying solid foundations to get the club back on the right footing.

“People who have come to see us play in pre-season will know that a realistic expectation for us this season, I think, is to stabilise the club.

“It has been a difficult period and we need to build foundations to push on from for the future. That has started with the restructuring of the staff, looking at the depth of the U20s and establishing a good relationship with the youth so that we can show young players that there is a pathway to the first team.

“Those are all factors that don’t show on a league table but in the longer term I hope that they will show that this has been a valuable transition for the club.

And he stresses that they will simply be taking things one game at a time, something that served him well in the run in last season as they very nearly came up with the great escape, taking the battle down to the last day after looking doomed with eight games to go.

“The challenge in front of us now is a massive one and while we will aspire to be as high up the table as we possibly can, all we can do is not look to the top of the stairs but take one step at a time and that will be a week to week basis,” explained McConkey.

With a much changed playing squad that has been put together in recent week, McConkey has urged for patience with his side and feels that it will take about ten games for the Mallards to get an understanding of where they are really at.

“It is only in recent weeks that we are starting to see some sort of clarity in our squad, it has probably been one of the toughest pre-season’s that I have had.

“It’s going to really be ten games in when we get a true picture of where we are really at,” he stated.

The Mallards have retained the services of the likes of Richard Clarke, Matty Smyth, Ross Taheny, Josh McIlwaine and Jason McCartney from last season and their experience will be important while McConkey has also brought in players who know what the Championship is all about  as he looks to build a competitive squad.

“You can’t underestimate the importance of those lads who were with us in the Premiership last season because you can’t buy experience and they will be complemented by the likes of John Connolly, Ryan Campbell and Warner Mullan while Aaron Arkinson, Duwayne McManus and Nathan Cashel also have experience of this particular league.”

And he states that he will be looking the players to show the same attitude that was shown at the end of last season.

“Certainly, the players who were there towards the end of last year with me know the way that I work and the standards that I set for them. If we adapt the same sort of attitude that we did at the end of last season then we have a greater chance of finishing higher up this table,” he added.

Usually, the teams relegated from the Premiership would be fancied to go back up again but that is not necessarily the case this year with a lot of quality in the league.

“Of all seasons to go down, if you were going down with aspirations of going straight back up it couldn’t have been a worse season in that respect.

“It is going to be a very difficult Championship this season and I know that any point that we get this season is going to hard earned and that is the attitude that we have to take.

“All I can do is try and galvanise the bunch of players that I have. We are where we are and we need that collective responsibility to work hard for each other and make ourselves a very difficult team to play against but equally try and have the bravery to play on the front foot when we can,” commented Harry.

And he expects it to be a very competitive league with a number of teams having strengthened well over the summer.

“It is one of those leagues that you could go from the top four to the bottom four very quickly. A lot of the teams in the league have strengthened, we have Limavady first and they have brought players in. Welders have a very settled and experienced side, Loughgall have made a lot of signings. Ballyclare were right up there last season and they have made a couple of important signings. There has been a lot of recruitment gone on this season and that’s before you get to Larne and Portadown. There is no doubt that when you see a Championship side going off for a week’s warm weather training as Larne have done then you know that things have changed and they will be aiming for promotion.

“Matthew Tipton  is an up and coming manager who has great ambitions for Portadown while Niall Currie has come in at Carrick and Carrick are very well positioned geographically to bring in players from the top clubs,” he said.

McConkey does know though that momentum plays a big part in the Championship and cites Newry City’s run in the second half of last season as an example of this. And he will be hoping to build momentum as the season progresses.

“Newry got off to a really bad start last year but once they got their momentum going they were able to see it through and get over the line in the end, they had a really good spell after Christmas. Institute also got themselves on a great run and at times they were able to get results without really playing well.

“You are hoping that you can get a bit of momentum,” said the Ducks boss.

What playing in the Championship may allow though is for the club to give youth players a chance in the first team.

Ballinamallard have been a club that have traditionally brought their youth players through to first team but it was difficult to make that progression in the Premiership.

With the club down a division, bringing through the youth is one of McConkey’s aims.

“There is a more realistic expectation for some of our youth players now to be able to get experience in the first team. The team that came up from the Championship was littered with players from the youth team, you had your Mark Staffords, the Hutchinsons, Chris Currans.

“There has always been players come up through the youth and that is  something that we are determined to continue,” he said.

And McConkey wants his players to play with no fear and to relish the challenges that lie ahead.

“The removal of that fear is something that I have worked hard on. There is a reality of course that we are playing against some very good players but that can equally be a big boost when you do something against a very good team. It multiples the importance of the pass that you played or the goal that you scored and that can give you a great lift. We will be going out to give our very best against quality players and if you perform well against that level you feel that you can also aspire to greater things,” he said.

And now, with the season just around the corner, McConkey says that the Mallards are just excited to get going.

“It is that old thing of the performer waiting to go on stage, you can learn your lines and do everything else but you can’t wait to get out and get at it.

“It is great to know that you are getting near the starting line and you just want to get at it and deal with the real thing,” he added.