Former Linfield ace looking to give back to home club after taking up interim manager role

The 36-year-old was appointed temporary Mallards chief earlier this week following the departure of Harry McConkey, who had spent almost six years at the County Fermanagh outfit and guided them to the 2018/19 Irish Cup final.

Stafford started out his career with Ballinamallard before moving to Windsor Park in July 2015, where the centre-back won four Premiership titles, two Irish Cup crowns and made 14 European appearances, including scoring in Linfield’s famous 3-2 home victory over Qarabag.

In total, he played 158 times for the Blues before joining Glenavon and returned to his local club in January 2022.

"I'm very lucky because of the things I achieved in the game locally,” he said. “I'm no hero or fantastic footballer, but I want to give something back to Ballinamallard.

"I would like to see other players get to experience what I did and even much more. I would love to help a few of them do that.

"I spoke to the players on Tuesday night and I told them and the chairman that this is my chance to give the club a bit back because they've been so good to me over the years.

"When I wanted to move to Linfield they didn't stop me.

"Now when they needed somebody, I wanted to help them out.”

Ballinamallard are hoping to appoint McConkey’s permanent successor within the next couple of weeks, but Stafford, who is currently club captain and on his way back from a quad injury, says that won’t be him.

"It has been hectic trying to get a staff together and organising sessions,” he said of the past week. “It has been very, very busy.

"It has been a great learning experience in how to deal with the pressure.

"I'm finishing my B Licence off in the next month or so and I'm doing a lot of work with Ballinamallard's youth teams and with the IFA National Performance Programme in Fermanagh.

"I'm out there coaching to learn and get better, but I just feel I need a bit more experience before I go into that role.

"Maybe in a year or two I could do that. I'm still playing too.

"They asked me to take it on an interim basis and I didn't take it immediately because I wanted to see who I could get in to help me.

"James McKenna has agreed to come on board for however many days it will be and Richard Clarke helped me with training on Tuesday night.”

Stafford also paid tribute to the work done by McConkey and says he will be carrying lessons learned from the former boss into his own coaching career.

"Harry came in at a very tough time,” he said. “The Mallards were down around the bottom of the Premiership and he almost kept them up with a miracle.

"They'd a couple of decent seasons in the Championship and were sitting second when Covid came and were denied a play-off.

"Harry didn't have much luck and then he lost all of his better players to the likes of Cliftonville, Dungannon and he had to build a squad again. It was very disappointing for him.

"I'm very thankful for him bringing me back to the club and he made me captain this year.

"I learnt a lot from Harry and his assistants Craig (Lynch) and Emmet (Friars) too from the way they do things.

"When you start your own coaching journey you're trying to take in everything and put yourself in their shoes.

"The older you get, the more you see and appreciate the people and the time they are putting in to it. I can't speak highly enough of him."

The Ferney Park outfit currently sit 10th in the Championship – one point ahead of Dergview – but are unbeaten in their last three league matches and Stafford has full confidence that they have the required quality to push up the table.

"We just need to be a bit more ruthless in certain areas of the pitch and it could make a big difference,” he added. “There are positive signs.

"The boys are working really hard and we have a good group of players and people.

"If I didn't like what I seen in the changing room then I wouldn't have even taken on the interim role.

"I know the changing room and they are a great bunch of lads who want to do well for each other.

"We have a really tough game against Ballyclare, but the players are prepared and we'll give a good account of ourselves."