After bizarre defeat Institute look to hit back against Newington

NIFL Championship   |   Institute vs. Newington

Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium   |   Saturday, 3pm

Kevin Deery is interested to see how his side react after putting in something of a Jekyll and Hyde performance in their weekend defeat to Dundela at the Brandywell.

‘Stute were absolutely superb in the first half of Saturday’s game, and could have gone into half-time three goals clear, at least, such was their dominance against the league leaders. But they emerged a different team after the break, and barely contested as Dundela ran over them for a 4-2 victory. It was a bewildering switch of performance in a matter of minutes and left the ‘Stute boss scratching his head.

“We played really well,” he agreed. “We always work on being free-flowing, but we also work on having to play ugly because that’s what this league presents you with. In the first half we really imposed ourselves on the game and should have scored three, four, five maybe, but we didn’t do it, we didn’t take our chances, we weren’t ruthless enough and it’s absolutely killed us in the second half.

"We weren’t ruthless in the opposition box, and we certainly weren’t ruthless in our own box in the second half. They got on top of us and a wee bit of panic set in on us for the first time this season.”

‘Stite have now lost 10 points from losing positions this season, but there seems to be little doubt that the manner of the defeat to Dundela hurt the ‘Stute boss much more than other disappointing results.

“It’s one of those ones where you go away and try to get your head around the second half performance,” he said. “I don’t think I’ll even watch the first half again because it will really, really punish me. I’ve always tried to say, but sometimes when you’re so good in one half an then you’re the complete opposite in the second half, it leaves you flat and then you’re asking questions. We have to try and get answers this week and get back at it, but I still feel that people have to take responsibility in how you can be so good and so clean and so crisp and so ruthless to going into your shell.”

Bouncing back

Since the loss, the NIFL league have announced that Dundela will not be able to play Premier Division football next season even if they win the league due to their Wilgar Park pitch not being wide enough for top flight football. That leaves the promotion picture somewhat distorted, but it could well mean that second place in the division could mean much more than runner-up this year. Regardless, Deery believes there are enough games left for his team to prove that they belong at the top end of the table.

“There are still eleven games to go, so you never know,” he continued. “We’ve got Newington at home now and that’s ging to be a really difficult game so we need to defend much better than we did in the second half.

“I think we lost three games in seven or eight weeks and now we’ve only lost three in the last 15 or 16 weeks. There are some draws in there and we did well to get those draws, but against Dundela it was just criminal to be honest.

Sean Carlin in action for ‘Stute against Dundela last week. 

Newington won at the Brandywell back in August in what was only the third league game of the season. A lot of football has been played since then, with ‘Stute proving themselves amongst the best in the division this year. Deery is hoping is players can continue to prove that in the coming weeks.

“We’re up and around the top end, we’re at the top end of the split and we have to regroup,” he stated. “We know Newington; this league is unforgiving. It’s a tough league, but I think if we show the levels we did in the first half and we cut out the carelessness and nervous energy we’ll be grand. We have to find the solution to that.”