Gray on his wayback to ’Stute

INSTITUTE gaffer Paul Kee will be telling his players that promotion is the only thing that matters this season.

The Waterside men, who expects to re-sign skipper Paddy McLaughlin in the not too distance future, believes the squad, which welcomes back experienced midfielder Joe Gray, is more than capable of clinching Premiership football for the 2013/14 campaign.

“Paddy (McLaughlin) will sign unless a Premier League club comes in for him and that was one of the things I said to some of the players that I wouldn’t stand in theway if they wanted to play Premier League football and that isn’t going to change.

“Joe Gray is back playing gaelic and seems to have overcome his knee injury, which kept him out last season and he too wants to come back.”

Kee feels the foundation which were laid last season is something he and the squad can build on during the 2012/13 campaign.

“I spoke to the players and stated that there was a lot of foundation work done last year, so lets see if we can build on it this season,” he said.

“In fairness the training has been good, it has been hard and very intense, hopefully they can stay with it and look after themselves as well off the pitch.”

“Ricky Lee Dougherty has got good credentials, he scored goals last year and he’s keen to move up and show what he can do at a higher level, so we are more than happy to accommodate him.

“(Gareth) Falconer is signing as well and in fairness he has been training well; he has got a good appetite for the game.”

This forthcoming season Kee wants his players to be on the front foot right from the start of the season as he’s looking for ’Stute to claim a promotion place.

“We lost three matches in and then another three matches so that was six and that didn’t help, so starting well is definitely important,” he conceded.

“You can’t afford to lose three games at the start of the season, which happened last year; so it’s something which will have to be worked on.

“The players have been told because they finished third last year that you would like to think that they would give a good account of themselves and we talked about promotion, to be honest I’m not interested in anything else; that may sound a bit corny but it’s fact to tell you the truth.”