Ballinamallard substitute David Kee celebrates his goal against Institute.
Ballinamallard manager Whitey Anderson has praised his players for their recent excellent performances, but warns they will need more of the same in the coming weeks.
“It’s been a tough six weeks and I gave them a rest last night. We’re back on Thursday to prepare for the trip to Ballymena,” said Anderson.
The Ballinamallard side had an excellent 3-0 victory over the Braidmen earlier in the season when they were top of the table, but Anderson knows Saturday’s trip to the Showgrounds will be a difficult even though Ballymena haven’t been firing on all cyclinders.
“They have had a few injuries of late, but expect some of them back for Saturday. We just want to keep our run going. The league is the most important thing for us. We have to keep progressing and move up the table.
“There will be competition for places now for the League Cup semi final when we knuckle down to play Ballymena. But for us Saturday is just as important. The fact that we play them in the semi final will make it even more interesting,” said Anderson.
Anderson admitted that the best thing to happen to his side was losing to Warrenpoint.
“That led us to re-evaluate ourselves and what we were doing. We’ve changed a lot since then and have become much stronger defensively and we’re working much harder as a unit.
‘We have enough pace and energy in our side to hurt any side in the league and there is a great confidence and genuine belief among the players now,” said the Mallards manager.
“We’re going to Ballymena to get a win as we always do, but we intend to come away with at least a result of some description,” he said.
Cathal Beacom is still waiting for a scan on his knee, while James McKenna is back training. Anthony Elding is expected to train fully by the end of the week and Jake Dykes is expected to be back on the training field soon also.