IRISH LEAGUE: Institute face rivals Dergview

The Waterside men have always found it tough against the Tyrone side, in their previous four encounters there has been two scoreless draws and a pair of 1-1 draws.

In fact in their last encounter at Darragh Park, really had everything with ex-Institute man Ivan Sproule sent-off early before ’Stute skipper Stephen O’Donnell was sent for an early bath.

Then in the last minute Dergview took the lead through substitute Philip Wallace but Kevin Deery’s side had to show tremendous spirit as they levelled things in stoppage time as Matthew Buchanan turned the ball into his own net.

Just before the goals, Gareth Brown missed from the penalty spot to give the Waterside men the lead. With this in mind Deery is expecting another action packed affair this weekend.

“They are always very eventful games,” stated Deery.

“That last game we definitely felt as if we should have won, even though we went a goal down and showed great character.

“But there’s a rivalry there and we have to be ready for the challenge that they are going to present to us but we are looking forward to it.

“We have a good week planned, which started with a good gym session on Monday night, then we play Derry tonight and then the boys will come in and recover on Thursday night and look forward to the game on Saturday.”

Deery will be reminding his players that they haven’t defeated their opponents for a number of years.

“As I said previous games we should have won them, but it’s something we have to prove to ourselves that we can beat them and they’ll be the same because they haven’t beaten us, so I think it will be a really good game and it hasn’t disappointed yet in the four previous games.”

Now that the split is settled and everyone knows the remaining games for the season, Deery wants his players to go out and enjoy the run-in.

“It’s an opportunity for us now to go and put a run of games together. The good thing for me now, is that I don’t need to be going about motivating people,” he said.

“We’re going to be playing the top six every week. I feel we are capable of beating anyone on our day so let’s embrace it; let’s bring it on. Let’s enjoy it and try and go on a run of wins.”

’Stute have injury concerns over Sammy Morrow and recent signing Kyle Friel-Curran, while Gareth Brown misses out through suspension.

“Kyle had a sore back, so that’s why he missed the Knockbreda game, so we’ll see how he gets on this week at training,” added Deery.

“Gareth misses out through suspensions because of bookings and Sammy has a wee bit of a chest infection at the minute, so we are a wee bit bleak looking at the minute, but there’s a lot of time until Saturday and we are hopeful that Sammy and Kyle will be pushing on this week and probably declaring themselves fit for the game.”