And while team boss, John Gregg, has taken a crumb of comfort from the 5-0 victory last Tuesday night, he’s fully aware that work needs to be done as his club continues the battle to survive in the newlook Irish League top flight.

Most pundits would have confidently predicted a home win at Windsor last Friday and given the lengthy injury and suspension list, ‘Stute were always going to struggle.

But the humiliating 7-0 defeat certainly hurt Gregg who immediately moved to bring Finn Harps striker, Kevin Ramsey, back to Drumahoe, however, the Creggan man is at least four weeks away from full fitness and the revival of his partnership with Paul Brown must wait.

Tomorrow afternoon, Stute will face another test when struggling Ballymena United arrive (k.o. 2p.m.) for what manager Roy Walker, will view as ‘must win’ game if only to kick-start their 2008 campaign.

“Ballymena have a very big squad and they’ve paid money to bring some of those guys in so we’ll have to work very hard if we’re to win,” said Gregg.

“To be fair to the players, they responded against Moyola in the North-West Cup. They were expected to dominate the game and, as the scoreline suggests, they did with Paul Brown scoring a fully deserved hat-trick.

“There’s no doubt the Linfield match hurt us badly, it was a horror show but I was glad to get a game so soon after and put matters right. Against Ballymena we need to improve and while we’re still struggling a bit on the player front, I feel we can get a result,” he claimed.

On the team front, Gregg has high hopes both Ruari Boyle and John O’Loughlin will return from injury, but the ‘Stute boss was delighted to see Declan Divin get an hour’s competitive action under his belt.

“It was a bonus to get Decky back into action and I’ve no doubt that the 60 minutes he played will help him. I can’t see too many changes from the team which played against Moyola,” concluded Gregg.