Richard Lecky is hoping his winning goal against Coleraine can kick start his Ballinamallard career.  The striker admits he has not scored as many goals as would have liked since his arrival in the summer, but his first time strike from the edge of the area into the bottom corner of the net earned the Mallard’s a vital three points on Saturday and provided him with the highlight of his season so far.

 “Keesy (David Kee) had a wee lay off and there was nothing else to do but strike it,” he recalled. “I knew it was on my right foot but it was worth a swing and I struck it as well as I could.” Lecky arrived from Portadown in the summer and his new manager Whitey Anderson said at the time that he expected him to follow in Andy Crawford’s footsteps and have a massive influence at the club, but hopes that the front man would solve Ballinamallard’s scoring woes proved optimistic and Lecky has struggled to make an impact.  He has started only nine matches during the current campaign and Saturday’s strike was only his second goal. Lecky acknowledges things have not gone as well as he would hoped.

“It’s fair to say I have been disappointed,” he admitted. “When I came here I wanted to score a lot of goals and for one reason or another it has not worked out. Injuries probably hit me at bad times and then I was struggling to get into form and to get into the team. It’s very hard as a striker because you want to be playing five or ten games in a row to get the goals, but I’ve been in and out every couple of games and it’s been hard to get into a run of form.” The Coleraine match was the first time that Ballinamallard have scored twice in a game since a New Year’s Day defeat to Warrenpoint, but Lecky reckons more goals are on the way. “The difference compared to the last two or three months is that we are getting numbers forward,” he said. “I got my goal because Keesy was beyond me and that is something we haven’t done this year. We don’t break forward in numbers enough and it’s very hard to make something out of nothing when you have no runners or no one making runs for you and making space. I think it was evident against Coleraine that we were higher up the pitch and everyone was pushing on. Rocket scored one this week and one last week and I scored as well so although we’ve left it a bit late to start getting goals it’s better late than never, especially when we are in the position we are in and trying to get points.”