Ballinamallard manager Mark Stafford was full of praise for his team’s defending, as they kept a clean sheet against the league’s top scorers Bangor on their way to a 4-0 victory. 

In recent weeks Stafford had expressed concern about the goals his side had been conceding, particularly from set pieces, but he was delighted with their performance against a Bangor side who were averaging close to three goals a game this season.  

“On Saturday I thought we saw a massive improvement,” he said. “Going into the game Bangor had scored 29 goals in ten games and they have two of the top goal scorers in the Championship playing up front, so we knew we had to be on the money. A clean sheet was fantastic, and it really was a deserved clean sheet.

"We defended magnificently as a team. At the start of the second half, we had to withstand a bit of pressure, which pleased me.

"We had to show a bit of character. Our recent history has been about giving away silly goals and letting teams back into games, but we spoke about that at half time and we carried out everything to a T.

"We kept our concentration and didn’t give them an easy way back into the game.”

The performance of the defence was even more impressive given that injury had ruled out Aaron Arkinson and Richie Johnston, and Peter Maguire had to be withdrawn after just twelve minutes.  

Stafford was delighted that others have stepped up in the midst of the current injury crisis.  

“Nathan Sherry came in and was very dominant,” said the manager.  “He organised things, and Dean Corrigan and Ryan Morris played alongside him and were also very good.

"Ryan Morris has been a bit of an unsung hero for us this last couple of months. He has been playing in defence and midfield, playing everywhere, and he has been fantastic for me. I thought the midfield was very good.

"Sean McAteer and John Edgar and Ryan Morris, and James McGrath when he came on, I thought we were good in that area of the pitch and didn’t let them get control. We need more of that to try to keep clean sheets.”

Ballinamallard have yet to string together back-to-back victories this season, and they will need to overcome their bogey side this weekend as they travel to play Institute.  

Stute are unbeaten in the last five league matches between the two sides, but Stafford is determined to change that record.  

“We will be fully focussed on what our jobs are on Saturday and there will be a big push to get three points, that is for sure,” he said.  

“Institute have had the upper hand on us since I have come back, but we are due a result against them. They have turned us over several times both at Ferney and at the Brandywell, but If we defend like we did on Saturday we will win a lot more games than we will lose.

"We have almost scored half as many goals already as we did in the whole of last season, so there are goals in the team.

"We just need to look after the back door and try to keep more clean sheets, because more often than not we will score goals.”