INSTITUTE: Cup tied Grace to miss Students encounter

Although disappointed his side don’t have a league game, boss Kevin Deery wants to get a positive result against the Students.

Having said that the Stute gaffer knows it’s going to be a difficult tie against the Championship Two side, who knocked out Lisburn Distillery in the last round, but he feels the pitch and facilitates at the Dub will suit his side.

“I was there in the summer doing my badges and Queen’s facilities are excellent, they have a tremendous pitch, so we’ll look forward going up to it,” he said.

“The Intermediate Cup is classed as our Irish Cup, because it’s all Championship and Intermediate sides taking part in it and we would be classed as one of the favourites, so we want to go all the way in the competition.

“I feel if we can have a cup run that will help us in the league, as winning breeds confidence, so an Intermediate Cup run would be something I’m looking for, however it’s going to be tough against Queen’s

“They beat Lisburn Distillery in the last round so they’ll be looking for another Championship One scalp.”

Deery also confirmed that he’s likely to make a few changes for the tie.

Midfielder Ciaron Harkin is back from suspension and defender Darryl McDermott is also available, but Garbhan Friel and Aaron Harkin are suspended and the unfortunate Niall Grace misses out again as he played with Trojans earlier in the competition so is cup tied.

“I feel our boys deserve an opportunity so I will be making changes,” he added.

“Over the last number of weeks I have been playing the same personnel, so it’s only fair for me to give other players in the squad their chance.

“I don’t think the side will be weakened or anything, because I feel there’s very thin lines which separates players in my squad, so this weekend I’ll be giving players an opportunity to stake a claim for a place in the starting line-up on a more regular basis.”

Deery is keeping his fingers crossed that the recent poor weather now finally drifts away and his team can get on a run of games.

“If we manage to play this weekend then it will be our third game in three weeks and although we’ll have a tight schedule to get all our games played, as we have had three games called off, but that’s what you want,” he added.

“I would imagine weather permitting we are going to be pretty busy from now until the end of the season, but that’s fine. You don’t want to be training all week and then the match is called off at the weekend, as a player and as a manager you want to play games.

“Hopefully now we can get a good push for the remainder three or four months and we are playing every week and I can see the team picking up, because playing regular can only help us.”