Ballinamallard manager Harry McConkey was much happier with his side’s performance on Tuesday night as they secured their place in the next round of the Bet McLean League Cup with a 4-1 win over Lurgan Celtic.

On Saturday the Mallards produced a poor second half display as they went down 4-1 to Dergview in the league but, albeit against lower league opposition, they were much improved on Tuesday night despite falling behind early on.

“I suppose from myself and the coaches point of view the biggest thing we felt afterwards was that having gone a goal down and it looked like another horror story could happen, we reacted in the right way. We were very positive, we pressed together and worked hard out of possession but equally we were much better at keeping the ball as the game moved on,” said McConkey

And the Mallards boss felt it was a step in the right direction in terms of what he wants from the players.

“I wanted the players to get a vision in their head that you have to move your opposition, you’ve got to create the spaces and the pockets to play in and then when you get in that final third you have to execute and tonight all those things eventually happened for us. It is still far from where I would want it to be but I think it is a positive step forward for us,” he added.

There was also a number of fine performances, not least from 17 year old Sam Robb who scored twice in an outstanding display.

“It was lovely for him to get two goals and get the man of the match award. We’ve been impressed by him as a 17 year old who has the game intelligence that he has but we need not get carried away with the kid either,” stated McConkey.

There was also a first team debut for Micheal Glynn who was introduced in the second half.

“Micheal has some great attributes and I feel that he is a kid who will blossom very quickly at this level. There has been great interest shown in him by clubs across the water but at this stage he has now committed himself to doing his A Levels at St. Michael’s so for the time being we are delighted to have him join the squad,” he said.

Next up for the Mallards is a home game against Portadown on Saturday and McConkey feels they are in a better shape going into it after the win on Tuesday night.

“If we had gone directly from the Dergview game to the Portadown game, I think that would have been a harder challenge for us.

“I still know that it is a massive challenge for us to compete with Portadown because of the quality of players they have all over the park. They have a great balance to their team and as a matter of fact I would see they are a better balanced team than Larne and they will love our pitch. We will have to deny them as much space as we can, if we open up against a team like this it could be very dangerous so we have to be compact.”

The Mallards have a number of injury concerns ahead of the game but there could be a return for Duwayne McManus who came on against Lurgan Celtic while Richard Clarke is set to train this week.