Ballinamallard’s pre-season continued with a 1-0 victory over Championship rivals Dergview, as newly signed striker BJ Banda found the net again. While the manager admits that pre-season games are never centred on the result, he was pleased with the clean sheet although reckons they still have work to do before the start of the campaign.

“It was an excellent work out for us,” said McConkey. “I thought that there were times in the game when we dominated, and in the latter stages they clearly dominated, and while the score is irrelevant this time, it is still nice not to concede.

“We defended very bravely towards the end, but we did invite them on us. I would like to see us have a bit more pressure on their goal, but the goal that we did get was very, very good.”

The Championship fixture list has pitched the two rivals together in the second game of the league campaign on August 10, and with the competitive fixture only three weeks away McConkey knows they will pose a tough challenge when they come to Ferney Park.

“Tommy (Canning) and I were both a wee bit sceptical about going ahead with the game since we play each other so early on, but I think we both got out of it exactly what we wanted,” said Harry. “We got our players very good game time in a competitive match, because there never is a game between the two clubs that is not competitive. Tommy has put together a really good squad for the season ahead, and you can clearly see that. We were very well hosted and it was a good day for everyone involved.”

The decisive moment of the match came when Banda ran onto a Chris Kelly pass and fired past the keeper, and Harry admits that the new signing’s early goals are a promising sign.

“It was a lovely ball down the side of the defence by Chris Kelly and BJ does very well. Previously he had missed a header after a wonderful ball from Jay McCartney, but he responded in the right way by taking his goal superbly.

“He is a player who plays on the shoulder. He has good feet and great acceleration, and defenders don’t like that. He also has a good eye for goal, and that is something we feel we needed having lost Ryan Campbell. Its an area we wanted to try to get someone for, and its early days yet but we are pleased with what we are seeing.”

McConkey is continuing to assess his squad ahead of the transfer deadline, with a trialist playing against Dergview, and another player coming in for the midweek fixture before he makes any decisions ahead of the July 31 deadline.

One existing player who had been impressing in pre-season was Alex Holder, but his injury nightmare returned on Saturday when he picked up another knock that will side line him for at least a few weeks.

“Alex did damage to his shoulder,” revealed McConkey.

“He had been outstanding in the first half. He was probably one of the best players on the pitch and the only way they could stop him was to foul him, and that is what happened. When he fell he couldn’t get his hand out, and he has jarred the shoulder.

“The x-ray has shown there is no sign of any dislocation but there is ligament and soft tissue damage and until that settles down we are not sure of the extent of it. He is certainly going to be out for at least a couple of weeks, which is very unfortunate as he had done so well.

“Nick Palmer turned an ankle as well so those were the dark spots of the day, but there was a lot of positives as well, and we came out of the game feeling it was a very positive exercise.”