Coleraine loanee Jay Riley out for the season

The young right-back, on loan from Coleraine, had to be helped off early in Saturday’s victory at Knockbreda and Donaghey admits he feels bitterly disappointed for the defender.

“He met with the Coleraine physio and they are anticipating a lay-off period of close to four to six weeks, so that probably rules him out for the rest of the season,” he insisted.

“Look we’re going to wait and see but we just don’t know. He’s a lot more comfortable and is now able to walk on his right leg, which is a massive improvement from where he was at on Saturday, so we’ll not be making a harsh judgement on it just yet.

“We would love to have him back before the end of the season, as he has done really well for us, but the main thing is ensuring young Jay is OK.

“It’s disappointing for him, because he actually had a trial organised, which he’s now going to miss. But listen he’s very young and because of that he should recover from injury a lot quicker and I have no doubt that the kid has a big future in the game.”

Last weekend’s win at Breda Park, means the Waterside men’s fate is in their own hands and something Donaghey is pleased about, however the ’Stute boss wants his players to remain focused and look to keep their good run going.

“Once it’s in your own hands you can only blame yourself,” he explained. “We have a chance in our first two games after the split lets be honest about it.

“We have got Ballyclare at home, but they are under new management, with a guy Stephen Small, who is a very, very, good friend of mines and someone who I really trust in the game, so that will be interesting. Then we have got Queen’s and we probably let ourselves down really, really badly against them a few weeks ago and I would like to put that performance and result to bed.

“That result and performance definitely hurt me and we asked for a response following the Queen’s game, we got six points out of six and we now for the first time have overtaken Knockbreda, they are now playing catch up on us and that’s a different type of pressure on them.

“Look the last two wins, especially the Knockbreda victory has brought a real feel good factor about at the club and everyone is bouncing into training, so with no game this week it’s my job to make sure they keep focused, because as I have reminded them we haven’t done anything yet.

“Let’s be honest, we have just put ourselves in a better position in the league than what we were 10 days ago. We’ll do something on Saturday, we may get a game or we’ll do a double session, but either way it’s still all hands on deck and we aren’t taking our foot off the pedal, because until we are mathematically safe, I can promise you that I’ll not be taking the foot off the pedal.”