Ballinamallard manager Gavin Dykes is urging his players to bring the same attitude and intensity into this Saturday’s clash against Glentoran as they did for the 1-0 defeat to Crusaders last weekend.
The Mallards were unfortunate to finish up empty handed from their encounter with the champions at Ferney Park having carved out a number of good scoring chances while limiting the threat of the Crues at the other end.
However, the decisive moment of the game came from the Crues when Jordan Forsythe fired home in the 28th minute for the only goal of the contest.
Dykes though could find no fault in his side’s performance on the day.
“I thought we were very good and I can’t fault the way we played or the effort. We created a couple of great chances and when you have the league champions hanging on we are doing something right. Everybody worked really hard against Crusaders and I was really encouraged by our performance. We have four or five games now before January and hopefully we will be picking up some points,” he said.
And Dykes wants more of the same from his players when they take on the Glens at Ferney Park this Saturday.
“We have to bring that performance, that attitude and that intensity into Glentoran this week. I thought we should have beaten them at the Oval, we were the better side that day apart from a ten minute spell, and hopefully we can go on and beat them at home. They are a decent side though and I think Gary Haveron has done a decent job,” he added.
Shane McCabe missed last week’s game due to injury but Dykes is keen to have the experienced midfielder back in the side this week.
“If he is fit he will come back in, we can’t afford not to play him. Hopefully he will be fit to train this week as he is a big player for us,” he stated.
And the manager is also hoping that the Mallards are about to see the best of Johnny Lafferty. Lafferty has impressed in the last two games and was unlucky not to have opened the scoring against Crusaders when he rattled the bar early on.
“He looks like a different player at the moment and hopefully the confidence is coming back,” commented Dykes.
Indeed, the Mallards looked lively going forward against the league leaders, especially in the first half, but Dykes stresses that the key is to keep the door shut at the other end.
“I’ve always said we will cause teams problems going forward but we haven’t kept enough clean-sheets and we’ve given away too many soft goals although we limited the champions to very little on Saturday and hopefully we can continue that this week.”