TOMMY Canning believes Ballinamallard are ‘heading in the right direction’ after they fired four goals past Harland and Wolff Welders without reply on Saturday. The victory makes it back-to-back wins for the Mallards, and the manager, who has been in his role for almost three months, believes Saturday’s dominant performance is a sign of things to come.

“The short-term things are the result and the points, but the long-term thing is that we are really heading in the right direction,” he said. “I am pleased with the scoreline, pleased with the manner of how we went about it, pleased with the fact we have kept a clean sheet for two games in a row, and all those things are the immediate things, but it is also a big step forward in terms of where we want to be and where we want to go.

“When you step back and analyse it in terms of the week that we put in, we put a lot of focus into playing the way we played on Saturday. There was a lot of focus through the week on how we were going to press them high up, and how we were going to force them to play under pressure.

“The last day they played here they beat us 2-1 and we didn’t lay a glove on them. We didn’t really get in and around them, but on Saturday we did that in bucket loads. From a coaching perspective, in terms of building towards going in a direction, that is a huge step forward for us.”

Josh McIlwaine was awarded the NIFL Championship Player of the Week for his three goals and assist, and Canning was thrilled at his striker performance.

“It was a superb team performance capped off by a really clinical performance for Macca (McIlwaine),” he said. “I’m delighted for him. When I came here he was out of the team for six or seven weeks and this is his real first run in the team. The fact we have changed shape and gone with two forwards has really helped him and we really saw what he was about on Saturday.”

Canning felt a key element of the Mallard’s performance was the availability of an almost full squad for the first time during this campaign.

“It is the first time since I came in, and Mark Stafford would say throughout the season, that we had a proper panel,” he said. “It’s the first time I have had to phone someone to say we are leaving you out of the 18-man squad. We had real strength on our bench, real experience, and real quality. We were able to bring Callum Moorehead into the game, Ryan Morris into the game, John Edgar, I thought Ultan O’Grady looked good when he came on, Dean Corrigan made his home debut as did Ultan, so lots and lots of positives.

“I don’t think anyone could say the game was in the balance at any stage. Jamie (Ray) made a great save towards the end but apart from that he did not have much to do, and Welders didn’t cause us any trouble whatsoever.”

The challenge Canning has now set for the Mallards is to turn back-to-back wins into three in a row with a victory over Ballyclare.

“One of the smaller goals we set ourselves was putting back-to-back victories together, which we have done now. The next thing is to get three in a row, and if you can get three in a row in this league it really changes the outlook of the table for you. We need to go and meet that challenge now.”