Youngsters are praised

INSTITUTE manager John Gregg was full of praise for his teenaged debutants Matthew Smith and Gary McFadden.

The duo started Saturday’s score draw with Newry City and the Coleraine man was thrilled by their contribution, in fact he felt young McFadden was man of the match.

“As far as Irish League debuts go I thought Gary was top notch, to be honest I thought he was the best player on the pitch,” he said.

“I felt he was excellent, not because he was fancy but because he played with a lot of heart, while young Matthew who got 60 minutes did well, in the first half whenever he started to come into the game but what he did he done well.

“Then young Conor Mullan came off the bench in the second half and he too did well, so it was an important game for those boys even though we had nothing to play for.

“I told the squad before the game that it was important that the players, who have played games all season, give the younger players the respect and then try and give them a performance which would help the young lads in their debuts.”

The weekend’s encounter certainly won’t live long in the memory bank and Gregg was the first to admit that.

“It was flat, but we definitely didn’t want to lose the game because we wanted to remain unbeaten.

“We are in training this week because we have to prepare that we are going to be involved in a play-off with Donegal Celtic, we don’t know yet but we just can’t take two weeks off.

“It has been a hard old season, there have been times whenever we have drawn games whenever we should have won them and we have lost games whenever we should not have, but I believe I have learned far more this year than last season.

“Whenever you take the pats on the back, you also need to take the slaps in the face whenever they come.”

Gregg was in a scouting mission on Monday night as he watched Donegal Celtic defeat Loughgall in the WKD Intermediate Cup Final.

“I watched DC’s cup final against Loughgall on Monday night at Distillery, because I feel we need to prepare if we come up against them in a play-off,” he added.

“I would rather be prepared than give the players ten days off and you can have no excuses then, the lads know themselves that they need to keep ticking over and I might even have a friendly next Saturday.

“I told the players after Saturday’s match with Newry City no matter what happens we have to focus on these two games if they come, we’ll be lucky to get a play-off so we have to grab it with both hands.

“Donegal Celtic will fancy themselves if they do play us in a play-off, because they have knocked this team out before when Liam (Beckett) was in charge, so all we can do is pray.”

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