Ballinamallard captain James McKenna knows better than anyone the importance of playing to the final whistle this Saturday when they take on Glentoran at the Oval.
After all, he was part of the last Ballinamallard side that were involved in a dramatic last day that saw Ballinamallard, Carrick and Warrenpoint Town all find themselves in the relegation spot in the dying minutes of the season.
That was on the final day of the 2015/16 season with the Mallards starting the day third from bottom and looked to be home and hosed with minutes left on the clock as they led Carrick 1-0 thanks to Ivan Sproule’s goal. The game though was turned on it’s head as Carrick scored in the 89th and 91st minute to leave Ballinamallard staring relegation in the face. In a dramatic turn of events though in the Dungannon v Warrenpoint game, an extremely dubious penalty awarded to Dungannon deep into injury time resulted in Warrenpoint being relegated and the Mallards left to face a play-off.
Even that play-off game showed how vital it is to keep going to the end as the Mallards scored with only seconds of injury time left to beat Institute and secure their place in the top flight.
“That last day was just unbelievable,” said McKenna. “In the 88th minute in our game we were safe, in the 91st minute we were in the play-off, by the 94th minute we were relegated and by the 95th minute we were back in the play-off again when Dungannon scored against Warrenpoint. It doesn’t get any closer than that.
“I had gone off at half time in the Carrick game as I’d torn my hamstring and I was leaning over the wall at Carrick watching the game and you were just crossing your fingers that you would see it out. We looked to be safe but the game swung big time obviously in the last five minutes and I think it was worse watching it from the sideline because you could do nothing to affect it or you had no control of what was going on at all. 
“Then in the play-offs we were seconds away form being relegated against Institute before we got out of it, so we have sailed close to the wind a couple of times,” he said.
The Mallards though survived both days and McKenna will be stressing to his team-mates that the season isn’t over until it’s over ahead of this Saturday’s concluding fixtures and that they can’t afford to panic at any stage.
“Anybody who was there that day, we will be stressing to the boys who maybe don’t know the way it went a couple of years ago that anything can change right up to the last seconds. You look at Carrick, they scored two goals in the last few minutes and they jumped from relegated to safety in injury time two years ago and that just shows you, football can be crazy and anything can happen on Saturday. 
“It’s important that we don’t panic, we don’t need to win the game in the first minute, we just have stay in the game and make sure that we give ourselves a chance as the game comes to an end that if we need a goal we are in a position to get a goal to stay in the league. 
“We have to go out and embrace it, it could be one of the best days you have on Saturday,” he said.
Saturday will be a tense and nervous day for Mallards supporters who will also be keeping a close eye on what is happening in the Carrick game. For McKenna though he will just be focusing on getting a win for Ballinamallard and let things elsewhere take care of  itself.
“Personally, I would rather not know what is going on anywhere else. I just think that we need to be really focused on our own game. It is dangerous to be sitting thinking about what is going on somewhere else and maybe thinking that a point will see us avoid relegation. We just need to be really professional and focused on getting three points and then after we have secured that find out if it is enough.
“In saying that, it will likely be impossible not to know with supporters shouting on to you. I had no idea that Carrick were winning last Saturday until one of the supporters shouted it on. 
“You will know by the atmosphere and even looking at your own bench whether the other game is going against us. We can only control our own game though and get the three points and hopefully that will be enough,” said McKenna.
Ballinamallard slipped back to the bottom of the table last Saturday as Carrick beat Glentoran while the Mallards drew with Ards but McKenna feels that they are still going into the last day with great momentum behind them, the Ducks having claimed ten points from their last seven games since Harry McConkey took charge.
“Most people had us down as relegated five or six weeks ago but we’ve worked hard to get ourselves a second chance and there is no point in being downbeat. Yes, there was a couple of days there when we had our destiny in our own hand and that changed again on Saturday but we are the team going into the last day with one defeat in seven.  We have to look at it as we are the team with momentum and while there might have been a slight shift in positions on Saturday we will go up to Glentoran full of confidence and they are going to have to match our hunger.”
And the Ballinamallard skipper knows that if they can avoid relegation on Saturday it will be a memorable day for all concerned.
“We are bottom of the league so all we can do is go and be really positive and go and get the win. It could be one of our best days in football; to go and win at one of the most iconic grounds in the league, to be able to say we went there and got the win to get us off the bottom of the table on the last day of the season, to me that would be a great story and great memory to have.”