Whitey Anderson was in no doubt that the victory over Warrenpoint was a huge three points for the club. The win takes the Mallards ten points clear of the automatic relegation spot, and ensures last week’s heavy defeat to Ballymena has not dented the confidence built up over recent weeks.

“It was a very big three points,” admitted Whitey. “They are a good side and our boys did very well against them. It puts a good gap between us, and we are now looking up the table. We were disappointed with the defeat to Ballymena because we could have been looking up towards sixth but we will take this three points. These are the games that you have to get three points from, the teams in around you. We have a very good record at home this season so far and we have to keep capitalising on that.” Ballinamallard went into the game hit by suspensions and unavailability with Davy Kee and Johnny Lafferty both missing out after collecting five yellow cards this season and Jason McCartney unable to make the Friday evening kick off due to work commitments, but Whitey was delighted with the side that did take the field. “I thought we thoroughly deserved the win and I was very proud of the boys,” he said. “You want your best players for matches like this but we have a good squad. The players that came in did magnificently. They worked extremely hard when they had to and overall I’m delighted. We can go into the Glentoran game with a lot of confidence. We’ve never beaten them up there but we have confidence and we have won two of the last three.” It was a convincing score line for the Mallards at the final whistle, but Whitey admitted that his side were under pressure at times. “I thought we started off well and then Warrenpoint came back into it, but in the second half I thought we were the better side,” he said. “When they got one back they lifted and our boys started to panic a bit and sit back. At 2-1 I was saying to myself that the way they were coming forward they could equalise and we would only get a point, and then we caught them on the counter attack. We talked about that because we felt we could catch them on the counter attack and we did.” In a good all round team performance, it was the contribution of in-form striker Liam Martin that caught the eye. The speedy forward scored the first with the aid of a deflection and was instrumental in the other two goals to cap a fine performance. “We decided to start with Liam up front because against Ballymena and against Institute he looked very good up there,” explained Whitey. “He was very lively and deserved his man of the match award. He works so hard both on and off the pitch and you could see that in his performance. He causes teams problems. He led from the front.”