Mallards set for crunch Ports clash

Published 19 Mar 2009 09:00 0 Comments

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IFA Championship; Ballinamallard United face a crucial contest on Saturday if they are to maintain their Ladbrokes.com title ambitions - but a former Mallards player will be hoping to put an end to Ferney Park outfit"s league challenge when the Fermanagh side take on Portadown at Holm Park on Saturday.

Ryan McCluskey will come up against friends and former team mates on Saturday, but all those friendships will be put on hold for the Ports midfielder as they go in search of three vital points in their hunt for promotion back to the JJB Premiership.

Portadown defeated Larne 3-1 on Tuesday night to leave themselves second in the table behind Loughgall with Portadown having a game in hand, and McCluskey is looking for the victory on Saturday.

'I have been at Ballinamallard twice and I"ve fond memories of those times. There was always a good buzz about the place and I hope they do well but you have to worry about your own lot and on Saturday we"ll be looking to beat them and stay ahead of those teams below us in the table. It will be good to play against the likes of James (McKenna), Cathal (Beacom) and Leon (Carters) who I would knock about with and I"m sure there will be a bit of banter but hopefully on Saturday evening I"ll have the bragging rights,' said the Portadown midfielder.

The Mallards have slipped down the table in recent weeks having been at the top of the league throughout the season and manager Whitey Anderson will be keen for his side to make a strong finish to the campaign, although they have a number of tough games between now and the end of the season.

A win on Saturday though would throw Ballinamallard right back into contention with Anderson"s side currently eight points adrift of the leaders but with three games in hand, and it would also put a severe dent in Portadown"s league aspirations.

It is though a big ask for Ballinamallard on Saturday although they have already beaten the Ports this season with a terrific 3-2 victory at Shamrock Park at the start of the season with goals coming from Cathal Beacom, Chris Crilly and Andy Crawford.

However, Ronnie McFall"s Portadown have shown a big improvement over the course of the season and, of course, have also beaten a number of the Premierships big guns on way to lifting the Co-Operative Insurance Cup.

Mallards assistant manager Brian Khan accepts that this is a game that they need to win.

'In light of last week"s results, it is a very big game. There is little between the top six and if we had picked up something from the Loughgall game last week it wouldn"t have put us under as much pressure to get a victory against Portadown. This is a game we need to get three points from,' he said.

Khan though feels that this is a game that the players will be fired up for.

'The boys will be up for this one. We need to be a bit more clinical in front of goal but they"ve been going well in training and apart from Grant Hutchinson, who is a big loss, we have virtually a full squad to pick from. Portadown certainly present a big challenge but it is one that everybody is really looking forward to and starts a run of two games a week for us which will test our strength in depth,' commented Khan.

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 19 Mar 09

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