Hutton excited as Institute start new season

Loughgall vs. Institute | Lakeview Park | Friday 7:45pm

Institute manager Peter Hutton feels tomorrow night’s opponents Loughgall are already playing ‘mind-games’ ahead of their Playr-Fit Championship opener.

Hutton believes that Darren Murphy’s men deciding to switch the first game of the campaign from Saturday to Friday evening, was a wee bit of gamesmanship.

“There is no easy way but that’s football and we’ll get on with it, but all the guys are looking forward to Friday night,” he stated.

“Look, it’s going to be tough; Loughgall are going to be one of the favourites to go up, there’s probably two or three teams in that sort of bracket.

“We know going away to Loughgall is going to be a hard one and they’ve moved the game to Friday night and they’re playing a wee bit of mind games and gamesmanship, but look that’s OK, as we can repay them when they come-back to the Brandywell.

“That’s football and no matter when the games played it’s always going to be a very difficult task for our first game of the season, but again we have to look forward to it and embrace it, you either see it as a positive or a negative and we just have to look at it as a challenge.”

The ex-Finn Harps and Derry City boss, who watched his youthful side secure a scoreless draw at Crusaders in their final pre-season game last Saturday, insists he’s excited to return to senior football.

⚪ New Signing: Ciarán O’Hara joins Institute Fc
The forward arrives from Coleraine and has already impressed in pre-season, featuring in Saturday’s match v Crusaders.

“Grateful for the opportunity and ready to put the ball in the net.”#StuteFamily #Welcome #NIFL pic.twitter.com/z0y2LyM4eY

— Institute Football Club (@Institute_FC) August 6, 2025

“It’s a completely new league to me in terms of personnel and teams,” he added. “So it will take a wee while to get used to things, like how teams set-up against us, but we’ll obviously do our homework beforehand in terms of the opposition who we’re playing against.

“It’s a new environment for myself and the back-room staff, some of the players have been here before and obviously some are coming in new to it all, but it’s something to look forward to.

“I haven’t set any targets, we just want to try and be as competitive as we can be, we know we’re probably a few weeks behind where we would like to be even in terms of games and things like that, but it has been the hand that’s been dealt and we’ve knuckled down throughout pre-season and we’re getting on with it.”

'Stute drew 0-0 at Crusaders in their final pre-season game last Saturday.

The 52-year-old felt returning to the dug-out with the Drumahoe club was right for him after meeting chairman Bill Anderson and his board.

“I obviously had left the Derry academy at the start of the season and I was sitting not doing very much, but the minute I spoke to Bill Anderson and the Institute board, you could tell immediately that they’re really good people and I wanted to help them out,” he confirmed.

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“I was intrigued and decided to take up the challenge and as I said before it’s a different challenge. The Championship is a new league to myself but I’m looking forward to things getting underway.

“I’m delighted with my back-room staff that we’ve got in and more importantly I’m delighted with the players and especially the ones that we kept who’ve already been here, because they’re here for the right reasons.

“I keep harping onto the boys that they have to take responsibility and they have to start driving it, there’s only so much management can do, you can try and give them the tools as best as you can, but ultimately they cross the white line and they make the decisions, but it’s also important that we back them and support them and give them all that they can.”