Institute gaffer worried after derby day defeat

The Waterside men have had chances particularly against Harland & Wolff Welders and Loughgall, but prior to tonight’s JBE League Cup encounter against Sports & Leisure, they still had not celebrated a goal.

“Of course not scoring a goal in the four games that we have played this season is a concern for me,” he said.

“I pride myself on making sure that the team go out and be creative and imaginative about what they do. I want the players to play attacking football and I want them scoring goals while they are doing that.

“It’s something that we have been working on but it just hasn’t worked for us so far this season. Rest assured I will be looking to bring a player in if we can that will give us a bit more threat up front.”

Another thing that disappointed Deery in Friday night’s North West Senior Cup defeat at Limavady United was the fact that the referee was too quick to assert his authority.

“I think our player seen the tackle coming and tried his best to avoid it plus he was straight back up on his feet,” added the ex-Derry City midfielder.

“He wasn’t even that long on the field neither and there were quite a few bookings in what wasn’t a dirty game. I think that sometimes with referees they fail to exercise some common sense at times which is what happened here.

“He was to quick to stamp his authority on the game when he could and should have let the game flow,” he concluded.

After such a convincing victory over neighbours Stute, United manager Paul Owens was clearly a happy man.

“That performance was probably as good as we have played this season so far, more like last year,” admitted the ex-Coleraine man. “We had a lot of pressure on the ball and tactically I think we got things pretty much perfect. Performance wise and the work rate from all of the players was excellent and they deserve the credit for that.

“Maybe it was the Friday night, maybe because it was a derby game but the levels were up from the previous game.”