Ballinamallard 1 Ards 5

Ballinamallard manager Harry McConkey has called on his players to make amends for Tuesday’s 5-1 thrashing by Ards in the Bet McLean League Cup when they welcome the same opposition to Ferney Park in the league this Saturday.

Ballinamallard conceded five goals at Ferney Park for the first time since April 2019 as Ards eased through to the next round of the cup, but the Mallards have a chance of instant redemption.

“I must get a response from the players this Saturday,” demanded McConkey. “We want to be putting on a performance that shows we care. We want to put it right, and we are getting a great opportunity to put it right quickly.

“We have had a good look at them and we know their strengths and weaknesses, and certainly we saw their strengths, but equally we know at 3-1 we had the momentum and there were balls that dropped in the box that on another day you stick into the back of the net. Those were key moments, and if had been able to get back to 3-2, at home, we could have got ourselves back in it. It was hugely disappointing, but the good thing is that it is only a few days before we can put it right.”

The squad had come into the match buoyed by the weekend win over Newington, but that feel-good factor quickly disappeared as Ards took the lead after five minutes.

McConkey admitted his decision to make wholesale changes to the starting 11 affected their fluency.

“I take full responsibility for the result,” he conceded. “Having promised players that we would that we would introduce them in the cup competitions to keep them up to speed, I made five changes. It would have been the easiest thing in the world to stick with the team that won on Saturday and keep momentum going, but I felt I had to keep my word to players.

“We can see already that yellow cards are building up on us, and there is likely to be suspensions coming in the not-too-distant future, and I needed to look at players to see if they are able to cope with that type of game.

“The bottom line is that that disrupted Saturday’s flow. Some of the lads that did come in did very well, and I think Jamie Ray towards the end of the game kept the thing better than it could have been. I had hoped that I would get another positive result and swell the confidence of the squad with players getting good game time against a very good opposition, and come out with another boost to our confidence, but it has backfired on me.”

Ards made a bright start to the contest with Salou Jallow a threat down the right, and it was a cross from the winger that allowed Max Miller to find the corner of the net from 12 yards out after five minutes.

Ballinamallard had an opportunity to square the match when a slide rule pass from John Edgar gave Josh McIlwaine a sight of goal, but his shot was saved by Neil Shields in the Ards goal.

Ards added a second after 12 minutes when Jallow and Miller again combined to score, but as the half progressed the home team started to settle and Darragh Byrne and John Edgar both had efforts deflected wide before Simon Warrington narrowly missed out on applying the finishing touch to an Edgar cross.

The Mallards suffered another setback with the last kick of the first half when Adam McCallum glanced in a header from a near post corner, but after the restart, they looked the more threatening and pulled a goal back with Peter Maguire’s header from Jamie Dunne’s free kick.

Edgar then had a shot smothered after the keeper had dropped a corner kick, but as Ballinamallard looked to increase the pressure on the Ards defence they were hit with a counter-attack and Ritchie Johnston’s mistimed tackle allowed James McLaughlin to score from the spot.

Jamie Ray then pulled off diving stops from the influential Eamon Scannell and Millar, but he was powerless to stop Ards scoring a fifth when Karl Hammill headed in a far post corner to complete the rout.