The big games keep coming thick and fast for Ballinamallard this Saturday.

Recent weeks have seen them take on leaders Newry City and a Loughgall side who were sitting second going into their meeting with the Ducks. And this Saturday they face Ards, who leapfrogged Loughgall last week to take second place.

“We knew that this was going to be a really testing month and that was why we were so disappointed with the result at the Welders and the result in Newry, because I don’t believe that the performances were that bad.

“This Saturday again we have to be pitching in for some points to keep ourselves in there. It is just relentless at the minute,” said Mallards boss, Harry McConkey.

Ballinamallard will go into the game buoyed by their comeback last week which saw them hit back from 3-1 down to earn a point against Loughgall, but McConkey knows that his side will face another tough test of their credentials on Saturday at Ferney Park.

Indeed, Ards comfortably accounted for the Mallards when the sides met in the league at the start of October, although they had a dip in form since then before picking up again last week.

“They are sitting second and they have a really strong panel of experienced players and some of them have real quality,” said McConkey.

“Since they beat us, and beat us well, they have gone on a bit of a bad run, but they came back last week and beat Institute well when everybody thought that ’Stute were going well and making progress.

“We know that they are coming to us with their heads up and they will be looking to do the business yet again on us, so we have to be right at it.”

Unavailable

McConkey will again have to change up his side with Ryan Morris unavailable, but he is hoping to welcome back Lee Warnock in his place. “Ryan Morris will be unavailable with a hip flexor problem and Colm McLaughlin is still unavailable, so we are certainly short in the centre half positions but we are hoping that Lee Warnock will come into the reckoning as he returned to training last week.

“We are playing Fivemiletown during the week in a friendly because we need to get lads games, and we’ll just see who comes through that,” he added.

Ballinamallard will go into Saturday’s game in fifth spot but they are only a point behind Ards in a tight and competitive top end of the table, and McConkey says that the key is just to stay in the hunt at this stage.

“At this moment in time, although we would love to be higher, we are just quite happy after Saturday’s result to be still right in there and I think that the manner of the result will give my boys a really good lift,” he said.

The character and fitness of his side were things that delighted McConkey on Saturday as they clawed their way back in the final 20 minutes of the contest to snatch a point.

“We didn’t feel sorry for ourselves when we went 3-1 down and I thought we got control of midfield and pushed them back.

“When you come from 3-1 down you have that feelgood factor because we had made a real positive attack on a bad situation, and that is about character as well as fitness because we believe that they were struggling at the end to live with us, and we kept going right to the end on what was a heavy pitch, which was very pleasing,” he said.

And he acknowledges that with teams still dealing with injuries due to not having played for such a long period due to Covid, that there will continue to be twists and turns in the season.

“The bottom line is that we are so grateful to be back out playing again and having matches coming week on week because that is something that we have all really missed.

“But, clearly, there is an impact on every club in getting used to that and getting through it, and the league is going to twist and turn and every week that you look at that table and you are still tucked in there, I think that is a very good place to be,” he added.