Ballinamallard manager Whitey Anderson says planning for next season will start in the next couple of weeks but for now they will enjoy the fact that they have secured their Premiership status with two games to go.

The Mallards 2-1 win away to Coleraine was a third win on the spin since the league split and was enough to ensure that the Mallards will play Premiership football for a fourth successive season.

Anderson will look to strengthen his squad in the close season with speculation rife that midfielder Shane McCabe will rejoin the club after leaving Glenavon while it has also been rumoured that Mark Stafford will be exiting Ferney Park with it believed that he has signed a pre-contract to join Linfield ahead of next season.

“We’ve done a few bits of business way back in terms of contracts but really I think this week we can just relax and enjoy the fact that we don’t have to worry and after that we can then plan for the future. Over the next week or two there will be a lot of meetings and planning and we’ll see can we strengthen in certain areas,” said Whitey.

The Mallards boss could not hide his delight at having reached safety in the league and makes no bones about it being a big achievement for the club to be going into a fourth season in the top flight. “We are all delighted to have retained our Premier League status, I think it is a fantastic achievement,” he said. “Some people would say that’s a negative statement, to say that you are happy enough to be in the bottom four of the table, but you have to put a sense of perspective on this. When we first entered the league people said we would never survive one season but we are into our fourth season.

“We are probably a victim of our own success in that we got top six in that first season and people think we should do that every season. There has to be a reality check though. Going into the league at the start, the position we are in now is probably the position that people would have said you are going to be in, fighting in the bottom four. The whole thing now is where do we go from here and what can we do next season and beyond,” he stated.

As with many things, a lot of it boils down to finances and the Mallards simply cannot compete with the majority of clubs in the league on that score.

He is though full of praise for the efforts of the committee at Ferney Park in providing him with the funds to enable him to keep the Mallards competitive in the league.

“If you are looking at the difference between the top six and the bottom six then you are looking at finance but I have to say that our club works extremely hard to give me the budget that I have and I’m grateful for that. I’m particularly delighted for the chairman Jeff Aiken and his committee who work extremely hard for this club that we have managed to secure our Premiership status once again.” He added: “It’s been a great journey and we want to try and sustain it for a number of years and see where we can go.” Ballinamallard had looked in grave danger in January when they crashed to a 7-0 loss at the hands of Warrenpoint, but that result proved to be a pivotal moment for the side.

“We go back to the Warrenpoint game which was a big turning point for myself, the backroom team and the players. After that we all turned a corner. The players had to stand up and there was a lot of work that went on behind the scenes that a lot of people wouldn’t realise. We put a lot of things into place and you can see over the last ten weeks that it has come to fruition. The players are the ones that cross the white line, we just give them guidelines, they have to execute that, and they have certainly did that over the last ten weeks.” When the league split the Mallards were still looking nervously over their shoulders at those teams below them but when results were most needed, Balinamallard showed wonderful determination, quality and character to come up with three wins in a row to push away from danger.

“I have to pay the utmost credit to the players who have put in a tremendous eight days. To get three wins, score five goals, concede one and get nine points, they just showed fantastic character. You are not only talking about the physical demands but the psychological demands that they had to deal with in terms of the pressure of trying to retain our premier league status. Now they can relax for the rest of the season,” he commented.

And Whitey says that he feels his players emptied the tank on Saturday to ensure they got the result they needed.

After the game on Saturday they came off the pitch and I knew they had given everything they could give. It was windy, the pitch was poor and the conditions were poor but they dug in and showed fantastic character. “We started very well on Saturday and were on the front foot from the start. Ryan Campbell scored two great goals but I thought Johnny Lafferty in the centre of midfield was the catalyst for everything we did in the first half, he totally dominated the first half and Ryan Campbell obviously took his two goals extremely well. We rode our luck at times in the second half but sometimes you create your own luck.” And Whitey felt that the support that travelled to The Showgrounds also played their part in helping getting the team over the line.

“We had a great support up with us on Saturday, they were in great voice and they lifted the spirits of the players and really got behind them which means an awful lot. By and large we’ve had great support throughout the county and we’re grateful for that and I just think it has to be good for county Fermanagh and the local area,” he concluded.