’Stute to host DC this weekend

INSTITUTE manager Paul Kee was happy that the majority of his first team got another tough 90 minutes under there belt against UUJ on Saturday, as prepares start to step up for next month’s big kick-off.

The Drumahoe club, who travel to Carrick Rangers, on Saturday, August 11 in the opening day of the season, defeated the Students 2-1 thanks to goals from Joe McCready and Sean McCarron.

For Kee he feels another 90 minutes for the likes Paddy McLaughlin, Neil Harkin and Michael McCrudden will do them the world of good and he was also pleased that right-back Sean Roddy also played his first full game during pre-season.

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“I have to give Jordanstown credit, they never stopped and their work rate was really, really good and they did try to push us, so that was good from our point of view,” he admitted.

“The players certainly got something out of it fitness wise and there was a fair wee bit of intensity in the game, for a pre-season match; some of the players were starting to cramp up at the end, so it shows that the work out was good.

“Roddy has got a full shift on Saturday, Paddy also got another 90 minutes under his belt and that will do him no harm, Harkin put in a good shift and he started to get a bit tired towards the end, it was good for McCrudden to get another 90 minutes, he’s looking fit and sharp.

“Ricky Lee (Dougherty) is settling in, he has come from Newbuildings United with a goalscoring pedigree and in fairness he has 3 or 4 good shots on Saturday and he’s fitting in well; young Gareth Falconer has done a decent job at left-back.”

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Kee also felt that the Riverside Stadium pitch wasn’t at its best at the weekend and it probably should not have been played on.

“In fairness the pitch probably needs another few weeks rest if I’m to be honest; they left the grass long and there is still a lot of sand on it, but because the match was organised we had to go ahead with it and with the greatest respect to Jordanstown I think the pitch suited them better than us.

“The most important time is getting players grass time at this part of the season, because they are training and they want to play matches.

“We had chances to score and we didn’t but it was a typical pre-season game and if I’m to be honest I’m a wee bit disappointed that we only scored two, because we should have been scoring four or five, but you can’t fault the effort of our players.”

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This weekend the Waterside men host Premiership men Donegal Celtic (KO 3pm), while a second XI will travel to Glebe Rangers and Kee believes these games will be another tough test for his squad.

“We’ll have a couple of squads in operation next weekend, there will be one at Drumahoe and one in Glebe and if I’m to be honest I’ll probably have around 13 players in both squads, because I want players to get more good game time,” he conceded.

“I want a lot of the squad getting a good 90 minutes, like last weekend there was three or four players who got the full game, but the vast majority of them didn’t, so the likes of Robbie Hume could be doing with 90 minutes and that is really the purpose of rearranging both games.”