Ballinamallard manager Gavin Dykes accepts that Shane McCabe’s decision to retire from Irish League football has left him massive shoes to fill over the summer.

McCabe informed Dykes last week of his intentions and the manager says that he will not only be a loss to Ballinamallard but also to the league.

“He told me last week that he wasn’t able to do it anymore and I have to respect the decision. He’s been fantastic for me and he will be a massive gap to fill and will also be a loss for the Irish League. In fairness to him he has put a huge amount of effort into this season but his body won’t let him do it anymore. Your body catches up with you, it caught up on myself and I can totally understand where he is coming from but it is an awful shame I didn’t have him for a couple of years. I’m annoyed about it but, as I say, I fully understand,” said Dykes.

Dykes though had better news as he agreed new deals with three key players to keep them at the club despite interests from other Irish League clubs.

We had a very busy week last week. There was a couple of clubs came in for Richard Brush and a lot bigger clubs than we are so I’m delighted to have secured him on a new two year deal. A couple of clubs also came in for Ryan Curran which doesn’t surprise me as I think he is going to be a big asset for any club that gets him so we’re delighted to have him for the next couple of years. The most important one for me though is that we managed to keep the club captain and he is going to play again next season. It is bad enough losing McCabe but if we had lost James McKenna too it would have been a disaster and I think it is a great statement from the club that we have managed to keep the three boys,” he said.

And Dykes is looking to complete his business early with the Mallards boss having his eyes on adding three new players to his squad.

“Hopefully we can get a bit of business done in the next two weeks that will hopefully help us. Probably we are looking at three new players and if I can get the three I will be delighted as they will not only add a bit of experience but also a lot of positivity to the club which is what I want,” he commented.

He admits though that some players will have to be released by the club as they look at balancing the books.

“I spoke to them as a group afterwards and thanked them for what they have done. The last day of the season can be a sad day because the likelihood is that they will never be together again. It’s the reality and the football industry, if I want to bring people in, people have to go to balance books,” said Dykes.

The manager though was pleased with his first season in charge at Ferney Park.

“We scrapped over the line against Institute in the play off and then there was only a two week break for the players before they were back in pre-season and we had to manage that very carefully. We let an awful lot of players go last year and we changed the age profile of the whole thing as we decided to go with youth and energy. We had some bad runs but we had some good runs as well and we done enough.

“We’ve a lot of positives with the younger players. Mayse has been excellent for me after not playing a lot of football last year. McGinty has been a fantastic signing and cleaned up at the awards night and we have a lot of things we can build on for next year. I’m quite excited about it and even though we are only finished I’m looking forward to getting stuck into it as I think we can really push on,” he said.