INSTITUTE: Deery wants senior men to lead by example in run-in

Deery feels his more ‘senior’ players in his squad can help the likes of Jamie Dunne, Niall Grace, Ciaron Harkin, Aidan McCauley, Aaron Harkin and Jamie McIntyre to name but a few, as they attempt to move up the league.

“We need all the squad to continue to up the ante,” he said.

“There are 21-22 players who are all capable of playing in the starting 11 every week, so the whole squad needs to sense the importance of the remainder of the season.

“We all need to be driving each other on and everyone will play their part because we still have a lot of games coming up and I’ll be telling each player that they need to be ready right from the off as we are going to be playing a couple of games a week soon.

“Last weekend at Donegal Celtic we played Crowner at left-back and we looked pretty solid. I was really impressed by Crowner’s distribution with his left foot.

“It’s hard for a right footed player to play left-back, but he was super and he showed his experience and that’s the type of stuff I’m now looking for from the more senior players in the dressing room.

“For them to really lead by example, not just on the pitch, but also at training and stuff.”

The Waterside men who have picked up seven points from their last three league outings currently sit seven points behind fifth place Bangor, but they do have three games in hand over the Seasiders and Deery feels catching them is a realistic target.

“We have taken seven from our last nine points available,” he said.

“We target every five games and we are setting a target of over 10 points from each round of five games, so we are well on track for that.

“I think if we are going by last year’s table we would finish in the top five if we can get our targets each month, now in fairness everyone is beating everyone this season so we are well capable of getting into the top five.

“However in saying that we have a few massive weeks coming up and we need to up the ante a wee bit.”

Another good stat for Stute is in their remaining 13 matches they have an incredible eight outings at the Riverside Stadium.

“Drumahoe has been good to us this season,” said Deery.

“We have only lost twice at home, once in the league to Annagh United and once to Warrenpoint Town in the League Cup, so hopefully we can continue to keep the Riverside Stadium a fortress.

“Unfortunately since November 14, we have only played three league games and that’s why we’ll have a busy schedule coming up over the next few months and we have a lot of games at home, which is nice.”