NIFL Championship: Deery hoping to bounce back against Newington

NIFL Championship   |   Institute vs Newington
Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium (3pm)

Institute will be hoping to get back to winning ways this weekend when they welcome Newington to the Brandywell.

It has been a campaign of mixed emotions for Kevin Deery’s men so far, as an opening day win over Knockbreda was followed up by defeat against Portadown last weekend.

‘Stute can count themselves very unlucky not to have come away with anything from Shamrock Park, as they missed chance after chance and even had a goal disallowed, with Deery left frustrated to see his side fall to their first defeat of the season.

“I was very disappointed because I felt we should’ve won the game,” he said. “I thought we dominated most of it.

“We hit the bar, we hit the post, and we’ve had the goal disallowed so we’re disappointed not to come away with anything from the game.

“There’s plenty of positives we can take from it going forward, and what we’re doing here is building for the future.

“We just have to keep aiming to get better and play better as individuals.

“All of the players have been putting the work in over last eight or nine weeks and I’ve been very pleased with the boys’ attitude. So we have plenty of positives to take into the game against Newington.”

The ’Stute boss is keen to put the disappointment of last weekend behind him as he looks ahead to the challenge of Newington on Saturday, and while he expects a tough challenge from the Belfast side, he is full of belief that his team will be a match for anyone on home soil this season.

“Newington are a good side full of young, local players, who all absolutely love their club.

“They will go all go out there and play for the badge, and they will be fully committed to getting a result against us. But our job will be to focus on ourselves, and we have many decent players in our team that will be able to cause them problems.

“We’ll try and get on the front foot at the Brandywell and attack like we did in our opening game where we scored two goals and created plenty of chances, and we’ll be hoping for the same this weekend.”

Praise

The Portadown defeat has done nothing to deter Deery’s optimism in his new job, and he was full of praise for the way his squad have handled themselves so far this season, believing his players have the right mentality to put a good run of results together in the coming weeks.

“The boys are putting a lot of hard work into training every day, and I think things are coming along very well so far. We’re a team that always wants to play on the front foot but I’m not naïve enough to think we can go out and attack teams every week.

“I’ve been very pleased with what I’ve seen so far but it is very early days in the season and there’s a long way to go.

“There will be setbacks and positives in the weeks to come but if we can maintain our focus and keep doing the right things, then we’ll see how far we can go.”