Institute boss hopes players can bounce back after 'missed opportunity'

Institute boss Kevin Deery wants his players to use their Irish Cup exit to Loughgall as motivation for this Saturday’s Championship clash at Ballyclare Comrades.

The Drumahoe club suffered a narrow 3-2 loss to Dean Smith’s side, but Deery is backing his players to bounce back at Dixon Park this weekend.

“The league is our bread and butter,” he stated. “Ballyclare lost as well this evening (Tuesday) but in a way that makes our result worse and I am not being disrespectful to Dollingstown - they are flying, they are top of the Premier Intermediate - but we will never get an opportunity like that again to get into the quarter-final of the Irish Cup as we had tonight (Tuesday) after bringing it back to 2-2.

“My question to the players is, will you go away and reflect and let it hurt you enough?

“That's the question I want answered and once we park this result on Thursday night, that's the question they will be getting asked: Is it hurting enough? You had an opportunity to go and play Dollingstown in the last 16 and possibly get into the quarter-final and that's what we are in the game for, to try and compete and get into these later rounds of competitions like the Irish Cup.

“Again, we are a long way from that at this minute. We have had a total transformation of this group and unfortunately in my time here it seems to be common theme. It is difficult but we have to bounce back on Saturday away at Ballyclare and get three points.

“I think if we defend properly and get similar levels then we have a good chance of winning the game.”

Only recent Comrades appointed Barry Baggley as manager and while they were knocked out of the Irish Cup, Deery feels his players just need to focus on themselves.

“You give teams due diligence and you do your work on them but for me, I think if we eradicate the small errors, we’ll be fine.

“There is no rocket science in this game. On Thursday night at training we’ll be working and talking about eradicate those mistakes.

“We have a good general style of play, we play though the lines, we break lines and we attack with numbers but again, we have to work on what we didn’t do well tonight and, for me, it was defend our box better.

Institute's manager Kevin Deery.

“Then a corner into the box where we have every opportunity to get first contact on it and we don't do it. The third one, we we were unlucky not to block the cross but after that we need to get first contact on the ball in the box and we don't so that’s what we have to work on.”

Disappointed

The Creggan man was bitterly disappointed with their Irish Cup exit, as he felt once they got the tie back to 2-2, he only saw one winner.

“It is and it has been one of those seasons. Our overall performances have been quite good, as has our general play, but sometimes in our own box and defensively we are giving ourselves far too much to do,” he added.

“Having to come back from two goals down to 2-2 and then letting momentum swing back to Loughgall, I just felt, well I got a message to Mikhail (Kennedy) at 2-2 to keep doing the things we were doing, we were getting it in to the forward players quicker from our defenders and then supporting but then we decided to play through midfield and go to full-backs. We were just a bit slow in our build up play.

“We had been getting great joy from being a bit more direct and winning it back off them. We didn't smell those moments in the game. Again, it is just a bit naive; not recognising what was working and then venturing away from it after doing so well to get it back to 2-2.

“Even when the game swung to 2-2, you have to go on and win it. We had the momentum. We were certainly the better team throughout, I would maybe say there were 12 or 15 minutes in the first quarter when they were far better than us, but after that we took over but, again, soft goals has killed us.

Institute FC team who lined up against Loughgall. (Photo - Tom Heaney, nwpresspics)

“Also, I would state that our preparation with matches being called off - we haven't played since December 30th - there was definitely a rustiness there in our decision making; not in our legs or our fitness, but our heads were a bit scrambled. We weren't clear minded enough.

“In fact I think it did for their first goal. Brandon (Diau) has been unbelievable this season, he's probably been our stand-out signing but again his preparation hasn’t been what you would want and that’s the same for all of us.

“We have been stuck indoor playing small sided stuff over the last number of nights so big spaces, long balls, they are a wee bit harder to judge and adjust to in the Brandywell.

“Listen, I can't fault the players' efforts but the manner in which we gave the goals away is what is killing us.”