McCready is glad to be back at Drumahoe

The youngster returned to the Riverside Stadium after spending the last few months with Dungannon Swifts and he admits that’s the league he wants to be playing in, but also concedes that he’s happy to be back at ’Stute.

“I like playing in the Premiership, it’s where Institute wants to be and it’s where I want to be playing, it’s the highest level of football in Northern Ireland,” explained McCready.

“But I have to be honest I’m glad to be back and it’s a case of roll on Saturday against Donegal Celtic and hopefully I’ll be involved.”

The ex-Westbank front man is looking to finally show the ’Stute supporters that he’s a better player, than what he has shown over the last few years and he also believes doing it against Premiership opponents this weekend in the Irish Cup, would be a nice time to show them.

“It’s a good game for me to come back into the squad and hopefully show the supporters, that I am the player that I know I can be, although I haven’t been most of the time at ’Stute.

“I have been playing against Premiership teams all season, so it shouldn’t be too different for me and hopefully I can get a start and score a wee goal, which knocks Donegal Celtic out.”

McCready now wants to knuckle down and get his fitness back up, after spending a lot of time on the bench at Stangmore Park, where he concedes that life was tough with the Swifts.

“I need to get a bit more fitter, Keeso (Paul Kee) was saying that to me after our training session last Tuesday night, when I have to admit I was a wee bit sore after it, so if I get a bit of fitness under my belt and a few goals, that will mean I will hopefully get cracking into the season.

“I felt it was good at Dungannon, but it was hard to gel in as I was the only fella up their from Derry, but I slowly but surely got there and goals weren’t coming on a regular basis, I would score one in the league and then one in the cup, my goals were important goals for them but I wasn’t scoring enough.

“I went into a Dungannon side who were at the bottom half of the table and I wasn’t used to that because we were doing alright here at ’Stute, we were winning most weeks and then I went up their to Dungannon and there mentality was different as they were struggling to get points.”