Ballinamallard boss Harry McConkey has called on his attacking players to ease the pressure on his defence, as the Mallards once again conceded late to lose a match they could have won.

The Ballinamallard manager felt his team had the better of the game and had chances to take the lead against their derby rivals, but their failure to find the net was punished with almost the last kick of the game.

“We need to be taking the pressure off the defence, but I feel that in the final third we have let ourselves down all season,” admitted McConkey, whose team are the second lowest scorers in the Championship.

“I felt we maybe shaded the game in terms of clear opportunities, but we didn’t take them. It is easy to look at the defence, but you defend as a team and whenever you lose the ball in the last third of the pitch you have to make sure you are not so vulnerable. You have to have the numbers behind the ball to make sure that we don’t get caught.

“Too often this season we have gone to try to win the game and have found ourselves losing it. Even if we aren’t producing anything up front, we haven’t been clever enough to make sure that we don’t let them get at us so easily.”

“We are extremely disappointed again,” he continued.

“It is hard for me as a manager to come into the changing room and slate the players because they have put so much into the match, but when you are away at places like Dergview, if you are not going to win then you have to be able to make sure that you don’t lose it.

“Yet again, we have made life difficult for ourselves.

“If people keep making errors with the ball then you normally look at changing the personnel because they keep doing the same things despite being told, but the difficulty is that it is not always the same individual. Its someone else making the error each time.”

Despite the disappointing defeat, McConkey was encouraged by what he saw on Saturday, as a youthful Ballinamallard put four goals past Knockbreda at Ferney Park.

At the final whistle nine of the 11 players on the pitch were aged 20 or under. Centre back Peter Armstrong made his senior debut in place of the suspended Mark Stafford, and Justin McBride and Rory Keane also made their first Championship appearances for the club, while 18 year old Aaron Smyton claimed the man of the match award.

“Saturday was a good day at the club. At long last we entertained people and scored goals, and they were quality goals,” said McConkey.

“We put young players onto the park who made their Championship debuts and that is something that people should not take for granted. It’s been a pleasure personally to be able to do that, amongst all the horrible things that have happened this season. In adversity you do find players that maybe you were not expecting to make the progress they have, and that is the whole ethos of our youth system. That we develop players, and we provide a pathway to the first team, and when you see that in action it is a lovely thing to witness.”

“Aaron Smyton was excellent against both Dergview and Knockbreda, and now he is going to play at Windsor Park on Friday evening with the likes of Danny Barker in the final of the Harry Cavan Cup.

“Peter Armstrong came in against Knockbreda and was superb, and I know what it means to people like Justin McBride, Rory Keane, Peter Armstrong, Nick Palmer, Stevie Drumm, Aaron Smyton, Jamie Ray and Adam McCreery.

“All those lads have been training regularly with the first team as well as with Ally Irwin’s under 20s squad.

“These young players have helped the first team prepare this season and it is great that they get recognition for that and encouragement to keep working at their game.”

Ballinamallard’s next test is against Welders at Ferney Park on Saturday. The Belfast side are three points ahead of the Mallards with two games remaining, so a win is vital if McConkey is to lead his team to seventh place.

“We clearly have to beat Welders,” he admitted. “Last week they experimented with some young players, but Paul Kee has clearly stated that he will be coming all guns blazing to win this one because they want seventh place as much as we do.

“It should be a good game, but a tough battle. They have been the form team since January with all their new signings, but we will get up for it and hopefully have another good day at Ferney.”