For the third time in four games Ballinamallard have taken the lead in a game but have ended up empty handed.

Ryan Curran’s first goal for the Mallards gave Gavin Dykes’ side a half time lead against title chasing Linfield on Saturday but they again finished up with nothing to show for their troubles as Aaron Burns and Stephen Lowry struck to give the Blues the points.

“We have taken the lead against Ballymena, Crusaders and Linfield but have come away with nothing from them. We have been scoring goals and we have been creating chances but we are just getting punished at the back.

“On Saturday, we made a couple of individual mistakes for their goals.

“For the first, it should have been dealt with on two occasions and for the second we were screaming from the bench for somebody to pick up Lowry who then arrives at the edge of the box and he scored what in fairness was a great goal. You get punished for mistakes at this level and all the hard work goes out the window. The frustrating thing was that Jason McCartney had a great chance to make it 2-1 before they got their second and I think if he had scored that it would have put the game to bed.

“We had a few words afterwards because I was so frustrated and annoyed but we’ll get back at it and take the positives out of it.” he said.

It was a performance though that on the whole will have pleased Dykes with his side looking bright going forward and he says that the focus now is to try and reach safety as quick as possible with the Mallards eight points clear of 11th placed Carrack as the league moves into the five game split.

“David Healy told me that we caused them as many problems as anyone this season. We had a gameplan to try and get at them and attack and I thought we caused them all sorts of trouble. They couldn’t handle McGinty, Mayse and Curran but unfortunately we didn’t get anything out of the game.

“There is so much good stuff going on at the club. There are players coming through, we’re in the Harry Cavan Cup final and we just want to get over the line now and start to plan for next season.

“The bottom line is that we have got to win a couple of games to stay in this division. If we can go out and show the same performance levels and the same discipline that we did in the last two games I think we’ll be fine. But it’s easy saying it, we have to go out and do it. “ It was another youth product who shone on Saturday with Ben McCann producing a mature display at the heart of the defence. It has been a huge week for the Irvinestown youngster who made his first start in the Sky Sports live game away to leaders Crusaders before taking on the might of Linfield on Saturday.

“I could not say enough about McCann. He was immense against Crusaders and I thought he was absolutely outstanding the other day in a big game against Linfield. He has a lot to learn but he is only going to get better. We’ve been looking for a centre half who is big and physical and if he keeps developing he might be able to fill that role for us,” he said.

With the Irish Cup semi-finals taking place this week, the Mallards have no game until Saturday week when they host Glentoran and Dykes is hopeful that his injury worries will clear up further ahead of that.

“McConnell and McCabe are already back which is great and all being well we would hope to have McKenna back which would be huge for us because of his leadership. Hutchinson’s rehab has been really good and we are looking at him potentially for the Glentoran game while McIlwaine shouldn’t be too far away. All of a sudden it takes the pressure off because you are not relying on the same fellas and you are able to rest players. It is coming into a vital part of the season and as I said, our whole focus is on getting to safety.”