Last week, Ballinamallard United announced that they had parted company with manager Harry McConkey.
Following on from the departure of McConkey’s assistant, Emmet Friars, who took up the top job at local rivals Dergview after Tommy Canning’s exit, it will be all change in the Mallards dugout with respected defender Mark Stafford taking interim charge until a permanent successor is appointed.
Having served at Ferney Park for five and a half years, McConkey can leave with his head held high at what he achieved – with one stand-out moment in particular.
He was drafted in right at the tail end of the Ducks’ Premiership stay having been hired in March 2018, and fell short of a stab at top-flight survival on goal difference alone as Carrick Rangers edged the play-off rights.
While their six-year top-flight stint had come to a close, the journey under the new incumbent was still only at its beginning.
It was in 2012 that Ballinamallard became the first-ever Co Fermanagh club to play at the highest level of football in Northern Ireland – and, in 2019, they became the first-ever Co Fermanagh club to play in an Irish Cup Final.
For a Championship club to be destined for Windsor Park to play in as prestigious a game as it gets is a remarkable feat. By no means did McConkey and Co do it the easy way, either; after overcoming league rivals PSNI 5-1 in the Fifth Round, they overhauled Carrick in the last-16 before recording respective quarter and semi-final penalty shoot-out victories against Premiership opponents Dungannon Swifts and Warrenpoint Town.
“It is very hard to put into words what this means, but it’s great, just great,” he said following the 5-4 penalty triumph over the ‘Point.
The outcome was not quite to fancy them, with Jordan Owens, Philip Lowry and Ross Clarke on the scoresheet at the National Stadium to give Stephen Baxter’s Crusaders a 3-0 victory, but the occasion was special – and the manager was an all-important mastermind behind it.
A would-be Premiership title winner in left-back Micheál Glynn, who clinched the honour in 2023 with Larne, and flying forward Darragh McBrien, who this summer sealed himself a full-time deal at Linfield having since moved to Dungannon, were both firmly wedded in the day’s events.
As teenage hotshots, McConkey wasn’t afraid to let the kids know they were alright.
What’s more, for three consecutive seasons back in the second-tier, Ballinamallard secured a top-half spot, topping out in second-place in the Covid-curtailed 2019/20 campaign when it was Portadown who achieved promotion.
Only last term was that streak cut – and at that, it was only a marginal miss, going on to finish in eighth – but, with 11 points from as many matches to begin the current term, the footballing heartbeat of an entire county will have a fresh face leading them forward as they sit in 10th-place.
You can’t discredit McConkey’s legacy, though, particularly the Irish Cup showpiece. For a Fermanagh club to even have had a final say was exceptional and truly must be cherished, being a feat that had occurred neither before nor since, and the plaudits he received for his man-management and personality are worth pointing out, too.
In the meantime, the best of wishes to Stafford.
The Mallards captain and a popular centre-back, who was instrumental in laying the groundwork for David Healy to excel at Linfield, is taking on a new challenge, but his leadership and motivational qualities can chart an upward track ahead of somebody new taking the reins by the Erne.
Featured image from Irish FA website.
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