INSTITUTE: Future looking bright insists Kevin Deery

Deery feels his young squad are only starting to evolve and if they can remain together then you never know where it may take the club.

“I still think I have a lot to learn in this game but I’m fully committed to Institute,” he said. “To be fair the season isn’t over and when it is, I’ll sit down with the club and see if we are singing off the same hymn sheet.

“To be honest I feel Institute is a bit of a sleeping giant. Yes, there are a few things that need improving and we need more people to invest in the club.

“We need a bit of time and love for the club and while I know that a lot of good people do a lot behind the scenes, they too need help.

“I feel if they can get that help and support then to be honest we can be one of the top clubs about.”

Deery, like everyone involved with the Drumahoe club is frustrated by the current promotion play-off situation.

“Every other situation you have experienced in football, but not this one and we worked so hard to get a crack at promotion but we are stuck in limbo,” he added.

“You can accept all the other stuff that happens in football, like our poor start, gelling players and people leaving through petty stuff and you can work around it, but this play-off situation is something different and totally out of our hands.

“Everything is so indecisive and it’s very frustrating; it’s holding us back because the simple fact is if you know where you are playing you can plan, but we are in the unfortunate position we don’t know what league we are going to be in.

“We don’t know how it’s going to be plan out, we don’t know if we are going to be in a play-off, will it be a one game play-off, how late down the line with that play-off game take place?

“There’s a lot of unsolved issues and we feel that our season is still unfinished and like any club at this time of the season you would be re-evaluating things but we can’t and it’s so frustrating.”

In only his second year in management and his first in senior football, the ex-Derry City skipper has enjoyed this season, which he continues to state isn’t over and he feels the club will need to look at their amateur status situation, which he feels will harm the club in the long term future.

“I had a meeting with the players and the feedback I’m getting is that they all enjoyed the season,” he added.

“As a coach or manager it’s a good thing players enjoy playing for you, but it would be just a pity if it finishes with a real negative, everything goes flat and we don’t know where we’ll be at, but the club has to maintain up beat.

“I feel we have a great chance to push on because we have a lot of talented young players, yes while I would concede our squad did finish the season low in numbers and that would need to be addressed for next season, but in general the squad showed great potential.

“I feel not just with Institute but there’s a few players who have a chance of having a top career in senior football if they keep working at their game. It would be a crime for the club to lose players for no reward because of amateur signing on forms.

“Because if you lose players for nothing then you can’t build, whereas if you have a structure in place where you can look after them in a small way and have them in semi-professional contracts, then the club will be compensated if they do move on.

“Look all that chat is for the future when myself, the chairman Bill (Anderson) and the whole committee will sit down and I will tell them what I feel needs done for Institute to push on, because I certainly do believe it has the potential to be a top club.

“There’s only us and Derry City as the two senior clubs in the North West, then you have a 40-mile run to Coleraine so there’s no excuse the potential is there and as we have shown we can give good young players a chance to play senior football. However that chat is for another day and that will happen once we find out what league we are playing in next season.”