Shane McGinty has acknowledged that Ballinamallard have to start picking up points and winning games immediately or their time in the Premier League will be over.
 The Mallards face a crucial run of games over the next month, and with five of their next six fixtures against teams in the bottom half of the league table they will need to capitalise and start closing the gap to the teams above them. 
The run of crucial games start this Saturday with a trip to ninth placed Ards, who have only won one of their last eight matches, and McGinty knows it is a great opportunity to turn their season around.
“The times of waiting for things to turn are over. We have to make it turn now,” said the attacker. 
“Ards are at our end of the league although they have been doing a bit better than us. We played them at home earlier in the season and although we lost 2-0 that day we were on top for large parts of the game and I feel we should have got something out of the game that day, if not won it. 
“We will go up there knowing it’s a must win game at this stage.”
One win in 19 games and four points adrift at the foot of the Premier League table makes bleak reading for supporters who are desperate to see their club remain in the top flight, and Shane admits the players and staff are well aware of the responsibility that is resting on their shoulders. 
“The staff and the players are under no illusions about how big the next run of games are,” he said.
 “We are reminded constantly of how much it means to the people that come to support us on Saturdays and the town in general. We have heard a few interviews and things on the radio recently and that reinforces it again. We are well aware of it and we are more than ready. 
“Personally, I really do believe that we will be okay and we will get out of it. People have said to me ‘how can you still be positive and how can there still be a buzz’, but there is and the coaching staff have been great. 
“If you took out the people that are around us and took out their positivity and their motivation I would hate to think where we might be at this stage. We need that. 
“We have to believe that if we keep doing the right things then it will turn. It’s massively important for everybody around the club.”
Last Saturday resulted in another blank weekend for Ballinamallard, with surprise league leaders Coleraine continuing their good form by taking all three points, but Shane is trying to take some positives from the encounter. “Coming into the last half an hour or 20 minutes we need to find ourselves still in the game and from there you can maybe pick up something,” he said. 
“It’s something that we haven’t done enough in the last stretch of games but we did that on Saturday. Obviously we came out on the wrong side of it but it was encouraging against the league leaders to be able to do that. At the minute we need one of those chances to go in off anybody, but it’s important for us to keep in games.”
It has been a frustrating injury plagued spell for Shane in recent weeks and he is desperate to get back to full fitness to help out the team. 
“I have had a bit of bother with my toe on and off for quite a while, and it has flared up quite a bit recently,” he explained. 
“I have been trying to manage it as best as I can lately because we have such an important run of games coming up. Hopefully I can get over it and add a lot into what is going to be a hell of a run in for all of us.
“It’s not just me looking to get out there. Everybody is looking to chip in. Gavin is talking about strengthening and until those reinforcements come in we need every single player at their very best and at their fittest to allow us to produce our best, starting on Saturday.”