Ballinamallard’s final five games of the season against teams in the bottom half of the league will determine if they have to endure a repeat of last season’s promotion play off, but before that crucial run of games the Mallards will face Linfield at Ferney Park on Saturday. It is the second game in a week against the league’s top two, and despite the tough challenge it is the sort of match Ryan Mayse cannot wait to get involved in.

“As a player I want to be playing against the likes of Linfield and Crusaders every week,” said the Ballinamallard winger. “I was playing at Strathroy two years ago and thinking that these were the type of games I wanted to be playing in. You want to try yourself out against the best players and the best teams in the country. You will always learn things and I love playing against the big teams.”

Mayse is confident Ballinamallard can use their home advantage to help disrupt Linfield’s title challenge. “At Ferney Park I think we can give anyone a game,” he predicted. “This year there has only been one game where we were ran over, and that was against Coleraine in the third or fourth game when the boys didn’t really know each other and were just blending together. Crusaders only beat us 1-0, Linfield only beat us 2-1, and we beat Cliftonville as well. It is a tight wee pitch and the fans are great. I just love playing on Ferney!”

Ballinamallard came within half an hour of causing an upset on Monday night as they travelled to the home of champions and took a lead into half time, only for Crusaders to turn the game around in the final half an hour. “They showed why they are champions,” admitted Ryan. “Gavin set out a game plan and we worked at it on Thursday and Saturday. A couple of the boys were baffled at it but the more we thought about it we knew it would work. For the first 60 minutes we cancelled them out and frustrated them and they found us hard to break down. Our plan was then to hit them on the break and keep it tight.

“We got a very good goal and when you get a goal away at a place like that you have to try to defend it. The way we were set up was with a back five and there was only really me, McGinty and Curran up top and it was often three against six or seven. Johnny (Lafferty) and Callum (Frampong) had to sit and defend the house, and it was really frustrating at times but that is the way it has to be against the big teams. We are not like that against the teams around us and in those games we try to attack in numbers, but you can’t allow yourself to be exposed at the back against the likes of Crusaders. Then they grabbed three goals in the last half hour to put us to bed.”

It was a solid performance from Ballinamallard however, and Mayse was happy they put on a good show for the watching public on Sky Sports. “It was nice to get on Sky and it did feel a bit surreal at times. During the warm up there was a bit of nerves but once the first whistle went I didn’t pay much attention to it. Even knowing a month before it, every man was buzzing and was upping the ante in training looking for a starting spot, but then we got a lot of injuries and some of the boys couldn’t make it. The boys that played did themselves no harm though. They did the club proud. I think the average age of our team was 22 which is a healthy sign. We have lost McCabe, McKenna, Macca (McIlwaine), McConnell was out for weeks. They are big names for us and some teams would crumble without their captain, vice-captain and big leaders but we didn’t do that. We battled on with the young lads and everyone has pulled together as a unit and pushed things forward and I think it’s been really impressive.”

Despite the pleasing performance the defeat means Ballinamallard are eight points above the relegation zone, and the team are well aware that they still need to pick up points if they are to guarantee another season in the top flight. “Gavin and Andy made the point after the game that we are by no means home and hosed and we can’t take our eye off the prize. If Carrick win at the weekend it could be down to five and you never know what can happen after the split. We need to keep our foot down and push on and get as many points as we can,” he concluded.