Ballinamallard United manager Harry McConkey says that it is vital that his side go out and back up last Saturday’s brilliant win away to leaders Newry City by picking up the three points this Saturday when they host Knockbreda at Ferney Park.

The Mallards were excellent in ending Newry’s 100 percent start to the campaign but McConkey’s stresses that the key now is to push on and put a run of results together, something they have been unable to do so far in the early stages of the season.

“It’s important to back up a victory like the Newry game and start to get some momentum because we do know that if you can get two or three wins in a row in this league then you can move yourself up that table and that’s what we want, we are not happy with where we are.

“Myself the backroom staff and players are all striving to improve that situation, Saturday was one small step towards it but we don’t want to be taking a step back again.

“We mustn’t take this game out of any perspective, you get the same amount of points for a win in the league no matter if you beat Newry or you beat Knockbreda,” said McConkey.

Knockbreda had been showing good form going into last Saturday’s encounter against Loughgall. They had recorded with two wins and a draw from the four previous games prior to that but they crashed to a 6-1 defeat to Loughgall and McConkey knows they will be keen to bounce back from that heavy loss.

“I have spoken to a number of people about Knockbreda and they have all been surprised by their great energy.

“They have a young side, they work extremely hard for each other and they have pulled off some great results.

“I don’t know what happened to them on Saturday against Loughgall but they will want to react to that type of result and therefore they will be coming to us to produce a much improved performance,” he said.

The Ducks though will aim to build on last Saturday’s display and while McConkey is not getting carried away, there was a number of aspects of their play that pleased him against Newry.

“The most pleasing aspect was that I saw a great hunger and desire from the players after they had a difficult last league game. They took on board the things we worked on during the week in terms of addressing both boxes. The fact we scored three goals from set plays was pleasing, we are now a threat from those and that is something we wanted.

“I also think the game management aspect was excellent to. There was a lot of pluses for us without getting carried away,” he added.

McConkey also believes that the new players are beginning to settle in now.

“We are seeing now the Dean Currys, the Niall Graces, the Colm McLaughlins, the BJ Bandas, the Rory Browns are all settling in, that was always going to take time but now they are beginning to feel a lot more comfortable in our set up and our producing the form we know they are capable of,” he stated.

The Mallards have a couple of injury concerns ahead of Saturday’s clash but McConkey is hopeful of a strong squad to call on.

“Callum Moorehead and Sam Robb are out and then from last week Ryan Morris and Aaron Arkinson picked up knocks but hopefully they will be alright,” he said.