Institute's defensive pair set to miss Ballinamallard United game

Having lost their North West Senior Cup tie at Ferney Park last month, this evening’s game is the encounter which was abandoned only a few weeks ago after ex-’Stute man Niall Grace suffered a serious leg break and Donaghey hopes his team can carry their current form into tonight’s match.

The Drumahoe side secured a battling 2-2 draw at Annagh United on Saturday thanks to goals from Jamie Dunne and Rhys McDermott and Donaghey wants a similar performance.

“Look, we played well at Annagh and to be honest we should have been 2-0 up at half-time and if we take those chances then I think we win the game,” he stated.

“We conceded a poor second goal, but listen we’ll dust ourselves down and go again at Ballinamallard. The boys will look forward to playing on the Ferney Park pitch, but we’re expecting a tough game.

“They lost on Saturday at the Welders but they still scored three goals, so they are still scoring goals and they are always going to be a threat. They are very, very good at home, so as I said it’s going to be a tough game.”

Donaghey also confirmed that duo Conor Quigley and Joel Bradley Walsh are both extremely doubtful, but on the plus side skipper Aidan McCauley and striker Aaron McGurk may return after the duo missed Saturday’s draw at Annagh.

“Joel has had an Achilles problem since he came in and he was in pain after the game on Saturday, but he was seeing a physio on Monday. Conor played through the whole game with a thigh muscle problem and I think he has maybe aggravated that, so we could be a few defenders down for Tuesday and we aren’t exactly coming down with defenders, but hopefully we might have Aidy McCauley and Aaron McGurk back.

“Aidy was doing a wee bit of work on Monday, so hopefully he’ll make himself available and maybe Aaron will also be added to the squad, so it could be a couple in and a couple out.

“Look, we’ll just have to juggle things around. Part-time players aren’t built for three games in a week, but we’ll get on with it.”

“We have a few injury problems and to be honest the Ballinamallard game has probably come at a bad time for us, but listen it is what it is and we might have to play a few people out of positions and see how we get on.

“Regardless what team we play, we’ll be going their looking to get the three points and I expect all the boys to be looking forward to the game.

“Our form has been decent, we were very good at Ballyclare and on Saturday we were a wee bit hit or miss, but as I said we should have been 2-0 up and then they scored, we equalised and they took the lead and while we soaked up a lot of pressure, the equaliser that we conceded was a poor goal.

“To be fair we actually defended very, very well and the goal we conceded was very disappointing because it isn’t like us at all.

“Since I have come in our ratio has been really, really good and I know the goal difference doesn’t look good but 15 of those goals conceded I wasn’t there, so yeah defensively we have looked quite sound, but scoring at the other end has been a problem.

"We missed two very, very good chances in the first half and as I said if we take those chances I didn’t see them coming back no matter what happens.”