Parky misses trip to Seasiders

Over the past few weeks, the Waterside men have dropped into sixth place in the table, however they remain just two points behind second placed Newry City and the club’s Head of Development Paul Kee still expects a few twists and turns in the remainder of the season.

“It’s going to be a battle from now until the end of the season and we are going to have to be up for the scrap,” admitted Kee.

“I keep saying it but every game we have to win, we talked about it at training last Thursday night and we told them that every match is a must win if we want to go for this second spot.

“So we’ll be going to Bangor looking to win, it was pleasing that we got a win over Banbridge in the Intermediate Cup and that’s two games in a trout where we have scored three goals and that’s pleased me and that will also give the players a lot of confidence.

“There was a little bit of uncertainty because we were winning games 1-0 and kind of scraped through and the fact that we went behind on Saturday against Banbridge and then we have come from behind and played a nice controlled game.

“It’s a credit to the players, because they have stuck at it and they deserve all the accolades because they all are trying to keep playing football, even in the really difficult conditions against Banbridge they could have switched off, but their concentration levels was very good throughout.

“I was particularly pleased for Davitt (Walsh), he deserves a lot of credit, because he has stuck at it this year, through thick and thin, so it was nice that he got his reward on Saturday and he took his two goals very well.”

One man missing this week’s trip to Clandeboye Park is striker Stephen Parkhouse, but Kee remains confident that his side has enough strength in depth.

“We have brought in a couple of players and obviously we are going to try and introduce local players, the likes of Andy Cooke, he has had a good spell with Tullyally Colts.

“He’s a wee bit rough around the edges but he has potential, he needs games and he needs to be training regularly and I think once he gets a couple of weeks under his belt, he’ll be a good acquisition to the squad.

“He’s fit, he’s strong and he’s the type of player who we are looking for up front, who’ll chase things down. Joe (McCready) has been carrying a niggling injury this last while so that is why we are just kind of nursing him through at the minute, but he should be OK for the Bangor game.”

Also likely to be available this Saturday is midfielders Neil Harkin and Darren McCauley, the duo missed the Intermediate Cup win last weekend through sickness and work commitments respectfully.

“McCauley is obviously one of the players that we’ll have to look at, because Bangor are a big physical side, so we’ll have to look at how we’ll address that.

“We didn’t bring McCauley in to sit on the bench, he’s 21 years of age, he has a lot of experience under his belt and he wants to put himself in the shop window, so its likely that he’ll come back into the team.

“But I felt James McClay and Aaron McEneff alongside Declan McKeever all did well in midfield against Banbridge, I thought it was a good idea to blood someone like McClay into the team for the Banbridge game.

“It does him no harm playing in the first team and as people have seen we have used McEneff quite regularly, (Jamie) Glackin, Corey Hegarty, (Aaron) Rogan and Darren McFadden this season.

“Young players will get a chance at Institute because that is the way the club is going and I’m all for bringing through young players.”