McCrudden back from suspension for cup tie

The Amateur League men will go into Saturday’s Coca/Cola Intermediate Cup third round tie with nothing to fear and because of that Kee is wary of the Belfast men.

Having received a bye in the previous round in the competition, Alan McClelland’s side had an impressive 3-1 win at fellow title contenders Bangor Amateurs in the first round.

No matter what the Aircraft Park men do, the ’Stute manager just wants his players to start getting a few run of results together and more importantly get over last weekend’s Irish Cup defeat to Lisburn Distillery quickly.

“We just want to win the next match, it doesn’t matter if it’s the league or the Intermediate Cup,” insisted Kee.

“It’s disappointing that we lost because the players gave a big effort but we just lacked the cutting edge. You can’t make players score goals; they have to have the quality and the skill.”

With former Derry City, Cork City and St Patrick’s Athletic striker Stephen O’Flynn currently training with ’Stute, Kee believes those type of experienced players is probably something his squad needs.

“You either work with the same stable of players and hope it goes up a notch or you bring new players in which we might have to do in January anyway,” he added.

“It’s a fine line because we have to get results. The fact of the matter is that we have to stay with these players now until January.

“When the window opens up, the likelihood is that we will have to bring in some players. Some have excelled earlier in the season, but now they’ve hit a dip.

“Teams are more competitive against us now and we have to step up to that and we’re not doing that at the minute.

“We were the better team against Distillery and we did match them but we lost the game because when it goes to penalties it’s a lottery.”

The Waterside men welcome back midfielder Michael McCrudden from suspension, but fellow midfielders Aaron Walsh and Darren McCauley miss out through suspension.