Ryan Campbell’s fourth goal of the season earned Ballinamallard an important point at Dungannon Swifts on Saturday. It ended a run of eight games without a goal for last season’s top scorer, who has been playing in a wider position for much of the current campaign.

“It was good to get back up front again and I was happy to get the goal,” he said. “It was a straight forward goal. It was just a launch up field and I anticipated the ball going over the top. Luckily I got on to it and the keeper came out and I had to just put it over him. In the second half I thought I maybe I should have scored the winner but I was still happy enough to get one. It’s the best Saturday evening we’ve had for a while!” Ryan was one of Ballinamallard’s best performers on a day when they climbed out of the bottom two. He could have added to his personal goal tally with a shot that flew narrowly wide ten minutes after his goal, and he twice tested the Dungannon goal keeper with shots from the edge of the penalty area. Despite not being able to get a second goal and all three points, Ryan admits he was delighted to learn of Warrenpoint’s defeat that allowed the Mallard’s to edge ahead of them.

“When we came out after half time we heard the half time scores over the speaker and that inspired us a bit to make sure not to lose the game at least,” he said. “I thought we upped our game today. There were only six games to go and everybody knew we had to put in a performance and lift the work rate. There have been games where we have maybe only been playing at 70 or 80 per cent but today everybody upped their game and did very well. I thought we deserved the three points but we are happy enough with a point. It was a good team performance.” The split in the league means Ballinamallard’s remaining five matches are against the teams in the bottom half of the league, and Ryan is positive they can get enough points to get themselves to safety. “We are confident,” he said. “We were playing all the top teams in the last while, Glentoran, Linfield, Cliftonville and St. Pat’s in the Setanta, but now we are playing teams like ourselves who are at the foot of the league, so maybe we can get results against them and get safe. Against any team on the day we know we can win. We just have to keep up the work rate we showed against Dungannon to get the results we need.”