Ballinamallard manager Harry McConkey is looking for his side to produce a positive response against Knockbreda following last Saturday’s loss to Loughgall.

However, he acknowledges that it is going to be a tough ask against a Knockbreda side who although sitting bottom of the table have won their last two games since changing manager while the Mallards will be forced into changes for the game due to Jason McCartney getting married.

“We have shown bouncebackability time and again and we will hopefully show it again on Saturday,” said McConkey.

“It is not going to be easy though.

“Knockbreda sacked their manager and they have had a bounce since then. They beat Loughgall in their own backyard and they beat Ards on Saturday so they are in a real good place.

On top of that, Jay McCartney gets married on Saturday and we will be missing a few lads who will be at the wedding so it will be a tricky game but we will introduce a few new faces and freshen things up,” he commented.

Last Saturday, the Ducks slipped to defeat to fellow challengers Loughgall.

Having recovered from two goals down to level things, McConkey was disappointed to then end up empty handed from the game.

“It is disappointing to put yourself in such a positive position from a very poor start to the game. We got the goal before half time which was the perfect time and we then grabbed an equaliser and we were looking good. But we then had another lapse and we got punished clinically for it,” stated the Mallards boss.

And he is keen for his side to learn the lessons from games like this where it is better to come away with a point than none at all.

“We have to learn from those situations that if we are not going to win it then we need to make sure that we don’t lose it. We had that same experience against Ards and against Newry and we really have to learn that there are days that we have to accept that we won’t get a winner. We need to learn to manage the frantic element of the play and it’s something we will continue to work on.”

Having went into the game with a good defensive record recently, the Mallards looked hesitant at the back on Saturday.

“If we are doing well at the back we have looked a very good team but when we are not doing well in there we can look a very poor team at times where we give the ball away far too cheaply and try to force it and it gives the opposition real energy to come at us. If we don’t execute those passes we leave ourselves open to counter attacks and I think that was what caused us a problem on Saturday,” he added.

However, he still feels that there were positives to take out of the game.

“We continue to create chances and that is the healthy thing. We are capable of scoring goals and in Rocket we have the joint top scorer.We are still in second place in the league and we are much better placed than this time last year so we are making progress,” he stressed.