Institute hoping luck is on their side in final game of the season

Portadown vs. Institute FC   |   Shamrock Park   |   Friday, 7:45pm

In the 44th and final game of a season no-one expected, Institute can clinch a promotion play-off spot, but only if things go their way at Shamrock Park and elsewhere tomorrow night.

Kevin Deery and Mo Mahon could surely not have expected to be in this position when they took over at a club bereft of confidence last summer, but here they are, nine months later, on the verge of something remarkable if they can pull one last performance out of their squad.

Just a few short weeks ago, ‘Stute were right in the title picture, but a return of one win in four, and especially, five dropped points at home in the last two weeks, has denied them that possibility. Yet hope still remains, and a win at the home of champions Portadown, plus a draw between Bangor and Annagh elsewhere would mean ‘Stute finishing second and in that play-off spot.

There is currently just one point between second place and fifth, where ‘Stute sit, and anything can still happen at the end of the most remarkable promotion battle the Championship has seen for many years.

“It's incredible. It's so tight,” Kevin Deery agreed. “We've only lost three games away from home this year. Our away form has been much better than our home form so we'll take positives from that.

“We've 66 points now. It's a big turnaround for a team that didn't accumulate that in two seasons, who, by the skin of their noses, just saved themselves a relegation play-off against Ballymacash and now we've been challenging for promotion all year.

“We have a competitive budget, one of the most difficult in the league and we've had a great, great return on what the players have given us and we can only be positive about them. But to get better we need to try and grow the club and get more investment, and sign the better players that are willing to come to us.”

Portadown have beaten ‘Stute twice this season already, but Deery’s side did beat them at the Brandywell back in November. With the title won, the hosts have nothing left to play for, and that could be a factor n how results go tomorrow night. Whatever happens, ‘Stute know they must win at Shamrock Park.

“Portadown have been crowned champions so congratulations to them,” he said. “They've deserved to win the league. They've put a good run together and they’ve come strong.

“Hopefully they have enjoyed their celebrations for five days or so, and hopefully they let us roll in and try and get a play-off against Ballymena. We know football doesn't work like that but we have to go up and look after ourselves, and not depend on favours from Portadown.

"It's a big game. We would have liked to be going into the last game where we had a chance of winning the league, but unfortunately, we've suffered a lot in the last few weeks. We had injuries and boys playing patched up, and it's just been bad timing to be honest.

“In this game timing is everything. As you seen we were jumping out of our skin for large parts of the season. We've been very patched up with our most experienced and the players have played large parts of the season having to miss out in the last few weeks or play injured. So, we take it in the chin and we try and beat Portadown.”

‘Stute really have been crawling towards the finish line in recent weeks, the loss of Shaun Leppard for three games affecting them defensively and the loss of striker Mikhail Kennedy to a hamstring injury hurting them offensively. While others are finishing with a flourish, ‘Stute are battling with everything they have to reach the finish line.

Oisin Devlin has been one of ‘Stute’s young stars this season.

“Physically I think you can see we're squeezing every last ounce of energy out of us,” Deery acknowledged. “We had a really tough pre-season for seven or eight weeks. And now we're coming on to our eighth or ninth month of the season, so you can see it's been taxing.

“But if you want to be a professional footballer, you have to enjoy it. A lot of these players want to move on to bigger and better things, as every competitor and footballer manager should want to do. You have to embrace it now and go one more time for 90 minutes and try and get the three points.”

“We tried to get more goals on their squad in January and it hasn't really rewarded us, so we have to re-jig and try and get three points against Portadown. But also, with a view to next year, we need to build the squad with certain types of character and a wee bit more quality, to grow the group.”