New Ballinamallard United manager Mark Stafford kicked off his managerial career with an emphatic 4-0 victory over Ballyclare Comrades at Ferney Park on Saturday, but the club stalwart admitted that the moments leading up to kick-off were the most nerve-racking of his illustrious football career.

Stafford has four NIFL Premiership titles to his name with Linfield, but he acknowledged that nothing compared to the emotions he felt prior to the start of his managerial journey on Saturday.

“I have been involved in a lot of football over my career and I don’t think I was ever as nervous walking across a football pitch in my entire life than I was on Saturday,” he confessed.

“I felt a lot of pressure. There was a lot of work put in over preseason and you don’t know if you’re coaching the right things, if you’re saying the right things, until the first game comes. Only then do you know if you’ve done okay or not.

"It was not knowing what the result was going to be, but I told the players afterwards that I needn’t have worried. They have never let me down and they certainly didn’t let me down on Saturday. I couldn’t be more proud of their performance.”

Ballinamallard have been traditionally slow starters and prior to Saturday had not won their opening league match of a NIFL Championship campaign since 2018.

This season they were pitched against the side that had beaten them 4-0 in the final match of last season, but it was different story this time around and the manager felt the players desire was a big factor in their success.

“I’m delighted that it was our turn to win today,” he said after the match.

“I thought we wanted it a wee bit more than them and that pleased me. I want Ballinamallard teams to want it more than their opponents, and today we did that and that pleased me.”

Last season Ballinamallard suffered from a lack of goals, and prior to this campaign Stafford admitted that he was focussed on trying to get more players into goal scoring positions.

The Mallards only scored four goals or more on three occasions last season, so the manager was delighted that his game plan delivered goals at the first attempt.

“It was super to get four goals in the first game of the season, and we could maybe have had one or two more. I’m delighted with that, and long may it continue,” he said.

“We talked about getting the ball into the wide areas and causing them problems, and we did. I thought we were a bit unfortunate not to be going in ahead at the break. I thought we were good in the first half, but then in the second half we started it a bit sloppy and allowed them into the game. Joel Little makes a massive save at a massive moment of the game and then the rest is history.

"I thought the boys fully deserved it. Bar the one chance that they had in the second half there wasn’t too many other opportunities for them, but Ballyclare are always a threat with the players they have on the pitch. You are never comfortable in the game, but I was just very pleased.”

The manager singled out debutant goalkeeper Little, who made crucial saves either side of the half time interval and collected the sponsor’s Man of the Match award in his first competitive outing at Ferney Park.

“Joel was the first person I mentioned in the dressing room after the game,” revealed Stafford.

“Those saves were big moments of the game. It’s the last kick of the first half and he stays concentrated and pushes the ball over the bar. Then early in the second half 1v1 he makes a fantastic save. The game is still 0-0 and then we go on to win. Do we win it if they go 1-0 up? Maybe, maybe not, so it’s a massive moment and a really important one and he deserves his Man of the Match.”

Next up for Ballinamallard is a trip to H&W Welders on Saturday, and the Mallards can go into that challenge in high spirits.

“We will certainly go with confidence, but we have been up there before and we haven’t played well,” said Stafford.

“Welders are fantastically well coached by Paul Kee and he has experienced staff in the group. They had a very good result away from home against Bangor so it’s going to be a huge test for us, but hopefully we will go up there and give a good account of ourselves and get something from the game.

"We will go up and give it a real good go and try to cause them a few problems. I’ll be happy with that.”