It was a familiar story for Ballinamallard on Saturday, as they failed to convert early opportunities in front of goal before falling to defeat against title-chasing Loughgall.

The Mallards had the best of the early chances with Caolan McAleer, Peter Campbell and Shane McGinty all coming close, but after their bright start failed to yield a goal, they conceded from the penalty spot and never recovered.

“Saturday was the story of our season. We put so much into our game and came away with nothing,” admitted manager Harry McConkey.

“We seem to be toothless right now in the last third. Either the decision-making lets us down, or our finish lets us down.

“Some of our build-up play was good, but again we have nothing to show for it, and that is something we have to find very quickly.

“Ultimately, I can’t fault them for their effort and work rate, but we are making life hard for ourselves.

‘So frustrating’

“It is so frustrating. If a team was completely outplaying us, or running over the top of us and we were out of our depth, then you would be accepting some of that, but we do so much good work and then undo it by not finishing it off, and then having a lapse of concentration at the back.

“When you miss chances it is only natural that you come under pressure at some point in the game, and we have found ourselves maybe lacking a bit of concentration and not dealing with those threats as well as we should.

“It is now a situation where things are very much in the balance in the league.

“We have games in hand on people, and we can still get ourselves out of this, but it is certainly something we can’t let go on.”

Loughgall arrived at Ferney Park in a poor run of form, and having slipped off the top of the Championship league table last week, McConkey was hoping Ballinamallard could take advantage.

“This was a team that had been beaten the week before, and I felt that they weren’t over it,” he revealed.

“They had a few little blips of late, and I thought it was a great chance to take advantage of that situation. We came out hungry and with real intent because I felt if we could get one goal early, we could go on, but we didn’t manage to do that.”

Ballinamallard’s positive start almost produced a goal in the opening minutes but Peter Campbell had the ball taken off his toes as he was about to shoot, following a clever through ball from John Edgar.

Edgar and Shane McGinty then combined well to set up Caolan McAleer, but his shot from 20 yards was straight at the goalkeeper.

Loughgall then had a great chance to open the scoring when Peter Maguire scuffed a clearance, but Mark Stafford got back to clear off the line.

McGinty then curled a shot just wide of the upright and McAleer was denied by a last-ditch block from the Loughgall defender, before Loughgall were awarded a penalty following a challenge from Stafford.

Aaron Duke dispatched the spot kick to give the away side the lead, and they almost added to that before half time, with Jack Le-Moignan twice called into action and Stafford having to dive in front of a goal-bound effort.

After the half time interval Stafford went down under a challenge in the box, but the Mallards’ penalty appeals were waved away.

Any hopes of a comeback were extinguished when Loughgall added a second midway through the second half, Duke scoring his second of the game when he got on the end of a cross to the back post.

Warrenpoint are next up for the Mallards, and they come to Ferney Park on the back of four successive league wins.

They will be taking on a Ballinamallard side that has not added any new signings in the last week of the transfer window, despite the departure of Lee Warnock, who has returned to Ardstraw.

“I have to keep believing in these lads,” said the Manager, who failed in a late bid to add to the squad.

“We lost a few in January in Lee Warnock and Shaun McDermott and Michael Lynch and we have just brought in Jack [Le-Moignan], but there will be no other business done and we will go with the squad that we have.

“Sometimes that can be a plus, because if you have a lot of changes it can be hard for players to settle in, but we all know each other well and we know what we have to do.

“There is that sense of a real togetherness in the group, and we have to work together as hard as we can to get that vital result on Saturday,” he added.