IFA Championship Play-Off preview Institute vs Carrick Rangers: 'It's all about belief'

In three days time, Institute will know if they will be a Premiership team next year.

Standing in their way is Carrick Rangers – the team who finished second from bottom in this season’s top flight.

Tomorrow ‘Stute will take to the pitch at the Riverside Stadium hoping to grab an advantage in the first leg of the promotion/relegation play-off.

They got there after a stunning 3-1 victory over Ballyclare Comrades on Friday in the pre-play-off battle, a game that manager Kevin Deery feels they can take a lot of positives from.

“What’s really encouraging is how well we have progressed as a defensive unit. It’s maybe a fault of my own – I’m very attack minded – but I realise there’s different ways to win games and we showed that against Ballyclare on Friday,” he told the Derry News.

“We headed everything, we defended for our lives, we concentrated so well and now we have these two games to do the exact same, and I think if we do that then we have a chance.”

This is the first season in which the team second in the Championship faced the third team for a chance at the play-off, and the Blues boss said his team deserved to stay in the hunt.

“We would have been really hurting if we didn’t progress. My nerves were at me thinking that finishing second in the Championship, you deserve it. That mentality creeps in but you don’t want to get upset about it,” he admitted.

“I feel if you finish second in the division it would be cynical not to get a crack at second bottom and thankfully we showed the desire to do it.”

This week’s opponents lost 26 of their 38 league games, and won just four, being spared automatic relegation by the severe points deduction that Portadown were handed at the start of the 2016/17 season.

“We don’t know the situation with Carrick, we’ve played in the division below them all year so we call on people to have notes on them. We’ll certainly do a bit of work and see what they’re about,” Deery explained.

“My feeling about football is we’re battling and winning games, and Carrick aren’t winning as much. Alright, they’ll be scrapping for their lives but on the other hand is everyone committed to their future?”

He continued: “It’s going to be a funny game but I think if we show the same level of concentration and the desire that we did against Ballyclare we will do well. If you listen to any top manager, it’s always about ‘fight, fight, fight’ and you have to just keep fighting.”

Stephen Curry scored the brace that sent ‘Stute into this play-off, and his manager was quick to praise the top scorer.

“A reporter contacted me looking for his number because he got player of the month and we joked with him that it was because he got two goals against Ballyclare before so why couldn’t he do it this time,” laughed Deery.

“It’s funny when you have wee banter moments like that and then he goes and scores two goals again. He carries a fight for you in the sense of getting in behind teams and never stopping, and reading situations and latching on to mistakes, and we’re grateful that he can finish when he gets in there.”

The Drumahoe side have been in an excellent vein of form in recent months to secure second place in the Championship, and victory in the pre-play-off, and Deery said they have to continue that.

“We didn’t lose too many games all year, after Warrenpoint we have always been a match and we’re definitely capable of going on a run of games and that’s what we have shown,” he insisted.

“We’ve just hung in there and not worried about how glamorous it can be at times. We’re hungry to get a crack at the Premier Division, and hopefully we can get over the line this week.”

A good crowd came out to see the Blues secure a safe passage on Friday night, and Deery is hopeful of even greater numbers at the Riverside Stadium tomorrow night.

“We would look for more, obviously. A great club was playing down in Buncrana as well on Friday and we aren’t clashing with them this week, which is great.

“There’s a lot of local players out here that are out for the love of football. It’s very refreshing. We would welcome any support we could get tomorrow night, and we seen last week that it really helped the players.”

The club are no strangers to the play-off having suffered last minute heartbreak to Ballinamallard just a season ago in the same fixture, but the manager maintained that they have learnt a lot from it.

“I think we showed against Ballyclare and in recent weeks that we have learned a lot. Whenever we’ve been in tight games we’ve gotten the goal and managed to hold on. It’s all about growing – and that’s coaching staff and everyone included in that,” Deery admitted.

“We don’t just ask the players to learn everything. We’re learning and I have accepted that we have to be very astute and streetwise at times. We’re really delighted to get a crack but we can’t let it slip again. We have to believe we can get up.”