Ballinamallard have secured the signature of former Institute star Michael McCrudden. It is his second acquisition from the relegated Derry side after midfielder Robbie Hume signed earlier this week.
Ballinamallard fans will be familiar with McCrudden who scored his debut Premiership goal in front of the Ferney Park faithful with a superb strike to beat Whitey’s men back in October.
In a season interrupted by injury McCrudden’s only other Premiership goal was also against the Mallards, a late equaliser at Drumahoe in February.
However, it is on his previous reputation in the Championship that Whitey has taken a punt on the 23 year-old who is also a former Newcastle United trainee and Northern Ireland schoolboy international who spent time at Derry City before establishing himself at Institute.
Michael McCrudden won the Intermediate Cup with Institute in 2013 but it was the following season where he made people sit up and really take notice scoring 16 goals during Institute’s 2013/14 Championship One title-winning campaign. It was an individual performance which earned him the prestigious Northern Ireland Football Writers’ Championship Player of the Year award, won two years previously by Chris Curran in Ballinamallard’s own promotion winning season.