’Stute go amateur

INSTITUTE boss Paul Kee believes the club will be in a better position financially after announcing that the team is going ‘amateur’ next season.
By Kevin McLaughlin
Published 5th Jul 2012, 15:59 BST

The Drumahoe man last season stated that the sooner all clubs particularly in Championship One went back to amateur status the better.

“The team is going amateur and that is because the club will get financial benefits for going amateur,” he admitted.

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“It will save them financially on certain things, like rates and stuff like that, it’s the best way forward in fairness.

“To be honest nothing changes, in realistic terms it has been like that since January anyway.”

The Waterside men, who start their pre-season campaign this Saturday when they take on Oxford United Stars at the Brandywell Showgrounds, (KO 1.30pm), have signed the majority of last season’s squad, which finished third in Championship One and have added a few new faces.

New signing Ricky Lee Dougherty has joined while fellow Newbuildings man Gareth Falconer could also be on his way to Drumahoe to join up with the likes of Dean Jarvis, Joe McCready, Sean McCarron, Graham Crown, Sean Roddy, Declan McKeever, Michael McCrudden and Neil Harkin.

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Kee also acknowledged that he too heard the rumours that ‘this player or that player’ was leaving to join the Ulster Senior League, but after speaking to the majority of the squad he remained confident that they would all be staying at the Riverside Stadium.

“When the season was over and people’s contracts were up then it’s only natural for them to maybe think about going elsewhere.

“Some people maybe felt that maybe the Ulster Senior League had money, but there’s no money about at the minute

“We thought we might have lost a number of players but Davitt Walsh is away to Letterkenny and Ryan Browne is away to Limavady United, but at the minute we have signed Marty Gallagher, Corey Wilson, (Graham) Crown, (Sean) Roddy, (Dean) Jarvis, (Graeme) Taylor, (John) Curran, (Neil) Harkin, (Declan) McKeever, (Michael) McCrudden, (Sean) McCarron, (Joe) McCready, (Darren) McFadden and Richard Lynch have all re-signed.

“I’m sure that I have missed someone out, but most of the players who we thought would re-sign have done.”