Ballinamallard manager Harry McConkey is looking for his team to extend their recent run of good league form when they travel to H&W Welders on Saturday.

Since the Belfast side won at Ferney Park at the start of September the Mallards have only tasted defeat in one of their six Championship games, and after another strong showing against Portadown in midweek the squad go into the game with high on confidence.

“We have had a couple of good results and hopefully we can put up a really good performance against Welders,” said McConkey.

“There has been an upturn in our results since we last lost to Welders, and they have had an inconsistent spell since they beat us.

“They had a good victory over Loughgall then they lost 4-0 to Dundela, but they have a very dangerous front man in McClelland on their team. He has a lot of experience and we saw that last time. They came determined to stop us playing and made it very difficult for us, and I’ve no doubt they will do the same this Saturday.

“The pleasing thing for us is that we are going to their new stadium on a surface that is so much better than their previous one which was always a very difficult surface to play on that is something the boys should feel optimistic about.”

On Tuesday night the Mallards made their exit from the League Cup with a 1-0 defeat against Portadown at Shamrock Park.

McConkey felt the outcome came down to several crucial moments where things did not fall the Mallards’ way.

“There are key moments in every match and on 17 minutes we had a great chance with Macca but the keeper pulled off a great save,” he reflected.

“The goal they scored was disappointing because it was a long ball down the middle we didn’t deal with, and the keeper came for it and there was a clash and it fell to Bonis who is in prolific form, and maybe it could have been avoided with better communication.

“Then Macca was pulled down inside the penalty area by McLeod, who was already on a yellow card, and I don’t know if that influenced the ref but he certainly shocked me and it was a difficult one to accept.”

The first half was evenly contested with both sides carving out numerous opportunities while Portadown had the better of the second, but despite the defeat the manager was able to take a lot of positives from the loss.

“I am very proud of the way the players committed themselves in what was very difficult, windy conditions,” he said.

“They never stopped battling and that is something that has really pleased me this season about the boys.

“Portadown were playing a direct game and going long but I thought we dealt with it very well. They had opportunities on the break and only for Jamie Ray having a superb second half where he pulled off some incredible saves, we could have been put to the sword.

“Towards the end we changed our shape and in the wide areas we could cause them problems, but we just couldn’t get that crucial touch in the box.

“We are disappointed not to go into the next round. We would have loved to have a big game at home against Cliftonville, but I would probably sacrifice it for three points on Saturday, and there has been lots to learn from it. We will lick our wounds and we will get ourselves ready for the Welders on Saturday and then next Tuesday night because the next two games are very important for us.”

McConkey though has seen his squad stripped to the bare bones due to injuries and it got worse this week with the news that midfielder Alex Holder will miss the rest of the season with a cruciate ligament injury sustained in the match against Dundela.

He joins fellow midfielder Niall Grace on the side lines for the rest of the campaign, and with Ben McCann, Dean Currie, Lee Warnock and Richard Clarke all unavailable for Saturday’s clash with the Welders, it will be a test of the squad’s strength in depth.