Ballinamallard manager Gavin Dykes says he has full faith in his squad as they look to secure their first points of the season away to Carrick Rangers on Saturday.
It has been a tough opening spell for the Mallards who have suffered three defeats from their first three games but Dykes is confident that they will turn things around.
“It’s a big game because we have lost three on the trot,” he said. 
“We were poor against Ballymena on Saturday, we didn’t create anything but we’re looking forward to getting out in training and preparing for the game on Saturday. I have the upmost faith in the players and I have the upmost faith in what we are doing. It will come right, I have no doubt about that. I would just ask people to be patient, we will be fine,” he said.
The Mallards went down to a soft penalty on Saturday but Dykes is aware that they are yet to keep a clean-sheet and he says that has to be the first target for his side on Saturday.
“We have to get a positive result on the board and the first thing we have to try and do is get a cleansheet. I thought the penalty against us was harsh on Saturday but that’s no excuse, we didn’t deserve anything from the game. Saturday is a chance for us to now bounce back and that’s what we are aiming to do. It’s a big game but a game we can go and win,” he added.
Dykes may have to do without Johnny Lafferty for the trip to Carrick and he says he will assess the remainder of the squad during the week with a lot of tired bodies after three games in a week. He is happy though to have the chance to get the players out on the training pitch to work on things.
“Johnny Lafferty had to come off with an impact to his knee and we have a lot of tired lads. We have a lot of lads who have played three games in a week and we are not up to speed fully with pre-season with what was going on. We had a careful pre-season, would be the best way of putting it, because a lot of the lads had no break at all. Last week we couldn’t train at all because we had three games and the lads looked extremely tired on it. I thought on Saturday everybody looked a couple of yards off it both mentally and physically. It will be good to get some training in this week and we’ll assess the players during the week but Liam McMenamin is available again after suspension and hopefully Liam Flatley will train this week so that will give us options,” said Dykes.