Tommy Canning has called on his players to show a positive response against league leaders Dundela on Saturday, after they produced a performance against Bangor that the manager stated was the worst since his arrival at the club in November.

The Mallards lost 4-0 to title-challenging Bangor at Ferney Park, with the manager frustrated with his side’s wastefulness in front goal and slackness in defence.

“That is easily the worst performance since I have come in,” said Canning.

“I need to see a response from this group of players for the remaining seven games because this season cannot just peter out. That would not be acceptable.

"Dundela is a difficult place to go, and I don’t think Ballinamallard have a great track record up there, but it is the perfect game for people to show what they have about them.

"There needs to be a reaction and a bit of pride in how we go about our business. The players have seven games to show that what has gone before is real and that they don’t down tools. We are moving towards the summer and next season, and the players need to be conscious of that.”

Ballinamallard’s strength this season has been their solid defence, and they went into the game with the best defensive record in the league, but the manager felt they did not live up to their previous high standards.

“The manner of the goals we conceded were criminal,” he said. “We talked about the importance of tracking the run of Scott McArthur and Ben Cushnie off Ben Arthurs' headers, and for the first goal, McArthur is in one-on-one off a header and scores.

"The second goal Lewis Francis is standing two yards out on his own. The two goals we conceded in the second half were also really poor. We get robbed down near our corner flag and then Arthurs is on his own at the back post.

"Then we lost Harrison from a corner. Very disappointing in the manner of the goals we conceded.”

Despite the convincing look of the final scoreline Ballinamallard were on top for most of the first half and created numerous chances, but it was a familiar story in front of goal as they spurned chance after chance.

“We have now lost 4-0 to Bangor and beat Portadown 4-0, and the difference between those two games was what we did in the attacking box,” Canning reflected.

“Had we taken our chances we would have won this game comfortably, but we didn’t. Either side of their first two goals I thought we were superb in the first two-thirds of the pitch, but in the final third of the pitch I thought the quality of the play was poor at times.

"On the occasions we did get it right we just weren’t ruthless enough. We had enough chances to come in at half-time 4-1 up. The game should have been dead and buried. That is not the first time that has happened.

"It happened last Tuesday at Dergview, and it happened the week before against Portadown. We spend a huge amount of time on finishing in training, and yet we are not finishing off moves.

"That is a huge worry. When you look at the table you can see the goals we have scored are not enough and we don’t have anybody in double figures for goals. We have scored one goal in the last three games and yet played quite well for most parts of them.

"It is obvious where the problem is and it's my job to try and fix that.”