Institute fall to disastrous defeat to Newington

Institute 0

Newington 2

Institute can only hope to scrape a relegation play-off after they fell to a disastrous defeat to Newington at the Brandywell. 

Knowing they needed to win to give themselves any chance to finishing outside the bottom two, 'Stute were lacklustre and nervy throughout, and rarely looked dangerous. 

In contrast, Newington showed more hunger and belief and that attitude turned into two second half goals which keeps them safe in the Lough 41 Championship. 

‘Stute were clearly nervous in the opening period, and that only encouraged Newington, who came so close to scoring the first goal. Two corners put goalkeeper Dylan Doherty under pressure, the second of which eventually fell to Patrick Downey on the edge of the area, and his first time shot went through a crowd of bodies before flashing just wide of the post.

A poor first half should have ended with a goal for Institute as they finally created a chance. Cormac Burke found Rhys McDermott in space on the right for the first time. The full back took the ball forward and his cross was deflected right into the path of Jack Millar just six yards out but somehow the young striker turned it wide. It was a massive chance for the home side and one which should have been taken.

‘Stute needed to be better in the second half but they almost began a goal down, as Michael Morgan was left one-on-one against Dylan King, and he had the beating of the centre-half, racing all the way into the area before hooking the ball just wide of the target.

Brian Donaghey made a quick change in the second half, replacing Alonzo Clarke with Andrew Whiteside, and immediately his team began to look more threatening. The substitute nearly got on the end of a half chance immediately when McDermott picked out McAleer just inside the area and the full-back’s pass inside tempted Whiteside, but he couldn’t get enough on his effort and the ball trickled wide of goal.

But disaster struck ‘Stute on the hour. A long ball forward from the Newington defence looked comfortable for King, but he only headed it straight to Morgan, who cut inside, got a yard on the ‘Stute defender and drilled a lot shot beyond Doherty and into the corner of the net for 1-0.

The goal kicked the game into life and ‘Stute almost equalised immediately from their first corner of the game. While Orrin McLaughlin’s delivery was cleared, the ball was returned immediately to the back post by King where Shaun Leppard arrived and smashed the ball against the base of the post from close range.

It was just not going to be ‘Stute’s day as they then gifted Newington a penalty. Referee Glenn Buchanan pointed to the spot after some reckless defending by both Leppard and McDermott, with both fouling in plain view. Eamonn Hughes dispatched the spot-kick with ease to make it two goals in four minutes for the Belfast side.

The confidence drained from ‘Stute after that and they were so fortunate not to fall 3-0 behind when the visitors broke on a 3-on-one counter attack, with Morgan feeding substitute Padraig Slane for what looked like a certain goal, but he struck the bar and ‘Stute survived.

'Stute now head to Ballinamallard on the final day needing to better Knockbreda's result against H&W Welders to avoid automatic relegation.  

Teams

INSTITUTE: Dylan Doherty, Ronan McAleer, Shaun Leppard, Rhys McDermott (Darragh Kelly 74’), Orrin McLaughlin, Cormac Burke (Sean McCarron 74’), Jamie Dunne (Mark Kirk 58’), Dylan King, Jack Millar, Oisin Devlin (Patrick McLaughlin 58’), Alonzo Clarke (Andrew Whiteside 51’).

NEWINGTON: Nathan Kerr, Francis Brennan, Kevin Bradley, Richard Gowdy, Gary Warwick (Tiarnan McNicholl 80’), Patrick Downey (Francis Rice 80’), Michael Morgan (Aodhfionn Casey 80’), Eamon Hughes (Padraig Slane 65’), Jack Reilly, Joshua Diver, Paul Donnelly (Conal Burns 65’).

REFEREE: Glenn Buchanan.