Johnny Lafferty weaves past Crusaders Paul Heatley.
It’s yet another big weekend for Ballinamallard. This Saturday the Mallards travel to the northwest for a six pointer against Institute.
Whitey Anderson will be looking for his charges to build on their improved form in recent games.
“We had a great result on Saturday, but there’s no point playing the top two sides the way we did if we don’t compete the same way against the teams at the bottom end of the table with ourselves,” said Anderson.
“It’s important we play with the same commitment and intensity we played with on Saturday [against Crues]. Institute have a reputation as a good footballing side, but it’s about ourselves. We have good morale in the camp.
“We’ve only been beaten twice in six games and I think we’re playing very well at the present time. We know if we win on Saturday we jump another place in the table, so that’s the target for ourselves.”
Consistent team selection has been a big part of the Mallards revived fortunes.
“I think now we have a fair idea of what we want to do now and how we want to play,” said Anderson. “We changed it after the Warrenpoint defeat and the way we’ve set up is suiting us. We have a lot of central midfielders in our squad and it’s suiting playing that way with the pace on the flanks.
“The back five has been very solid, it’s been the same back five for the past six weeks and the only reason we changed it against Glentoran was because the left back Colm McLoughlin was cup tied. Whenever you get a settled team it helps an awful lot.”
Ballinamallard will be without Anthony Elding again for this one. He is resting after a scan on his calf last week identified a slight tear and fluid on the muscle. Anderson is expecting the striker to be back in contention by the end of the month. In the meantime he is more focused on Institute’s scoring machine.
“You’ve got to play your own game, but we obviously realise Stephen O’Flynn has been scoring a lot of goals,” said Anderson. “He’s the sort of player who can be quiet and then just pop up and score.
“Obviously they depend on him a lot, but it’s all about cutting out the supply line to him. If we look after the rest of the team and defend the way we’ve been defending I’m confident we can create enough chances to hopefully win the game.”