It has been a steep learning curve for Ballinamallard’s January signing Liam McMenamin, but three months into his Ballinamallard career the former Strabane player feels he is finally coming to terms with life in the Premiership.

Liam was captain of a Strabane side that pushed Ballinamallard to a replay in the Irish Cup this year, but he could not immediately force his way into the Mallard’s starting eleven after he switched clubs. He made his first appearance as a substitute away to Coleraine at the start of February and two weeks later his first start was in the disappointing 6-0 defeat against Linfield at Windsor Park. He had to wait some time for another appearance but he has started each of the last two matches, and has performed well at right back as the Mallards have picked up four points.

“It hasn’t been easy,” he admits. “To come from intermediate football straight into the Premiership has been tough and it has taken me a couple of weeks in training to try to catch up with the lads. It’s just the constant tempo throughout the game. It is relentless from the first whistle to the end. It wasn’t easy coming in January but I knew the like of Keesy and Crawford and they have really helped me settle in and made me very welcome straight away and that really helps. This is my second consecutive start and it was all about getting settled in and getting a feel for it, and I think I have done that now.” Ballinamallard fans will have seen Liam play at centre back in the cup clashes between the two clubs, but Whitey Anderson has used him mainly as a right back. It is a change of position that Liam enjoys. “I am more a right back and I probably prefer playing there,” he said. “I played a lot of my football at centre back with Strabane before I came to Ballinamallard but that was more down to the fact we were lacking in that position at Strabane. I do enjoy playing centre half as well but I like the freedom of getting up and down from right back.” The Ards match gave the defender the first league clean sheet of his Ballinamallard career, but he acknowledges they were made to work very hard for their point. “Coming here we were under no illusions that it was going to be easy and fair play to Ards they really put it up to us,” he said. “We were under pressure early. We expected them to come at us and in the first ten or fifteen minutes we were probably lucky not to be one down. They really had us on the back foot, but I thought we grew into the game towards the end of the first half and then in the second half we got a wee bit more of a grip on it and I thought we maybe could have sneaked one, but I think a draw was probably a fair enough result. The way Ards played you wonder how they are bottom of the league. They have great energy and they have a great buzz about them, and it was a great point for us.”