Kevin Deery hopes Dundela win can be platform to push for league title

​It was a perfect weekend for the 'Stute boss who watched his depleted team humble title hopefuls Dundela with a morale-boosting 4-3 victory at Wilgar Park on Saturday as league leaders Portadown crashed to a 4-2 loss at home to Annagh.

Those results leave 'Stute within two points of Portadown who they meet on the final match of the season at Shamrock Park and just a single point off Dundela who led the way for the majority of the season.

It's all to play for and Deery hopes Saturday's result and performance can be a platform for a winning run which could bring the title to Brandywell at the end of the month.

"We've had a couple of setbacks but there's doubting the character of this team," said a delighted 'Stute boss. "There's not many teams that can go up there [Dundela] and win twice in a season and we've done that. So we're delighted with that."

Liam Mullan’s pinpoint accuracy from corner kicks fashioned three goals. An own goal got ‘Stute off the mark before goals from Dylan King, Conor Quigley and Michael Harris sealed the points.

“We just want to use it as a platform to go into the last few games and take as many points as we can that hopefully secures our fate.

"In the last five or six weeks before going into the split we've faced a lot of the teams we're facing now so that experience will stand to us and we got a lot of positive results.

"We had a depleted squad. We had five or six who have been a big part of this season, not in the squad and a couple of boys patched up to go on the bench. So it was brilliant again from the whole squad with five or six missing and to go and win so convincingly.

"I think we made it hard work for ourselves so I was delighted to come out of there with three points which sets us up for the next game."

It's easy to get carried away after a weekend where everything went to plan but Deery knows how far this young team has come, particularly given they were written off as cannon fodder at the start of the season following two years where they battled against the drop.

So to remain in the hunt for the title with just three matches to go is an achievement in itself.

"We just want to stay grounded. No one would've given us a chance from the start of the year so to be in the running to try and win the league is a big achievement from this group considering where they've come from these last two years.

"There's a chage in the mentality week by week and with Mikhail Kennedy missing, Evan Tweed, Danny Lafferty, big Shaun Leppard who has immense. So the whole group has stood up this season and we just need to keep it going. We have until the end of this month to win three football games but we always just concentrate on the next one which is Annagh and they're flying so we have to be ready to go again on Saturday.”