Institute boss Brian Donaghey happy his side rode their luck against Dundela

In what was his first game as manager, Donaghey, felt the guts and determination from young centre-back pairing of Shaun Leppard and Joel Bradley Walsh was tremendous.

“It was a tough day for us as Dundela put in a host of high balls for a sustained period in the second half and for a so-called young and inexperienced team they dug-in and they also showed some very, very good qualities,” he insisted.

“My two centre-halves Joel-Bradley Walsh and Shaun Leppard were outstanding, our two full-backs played their part and Dylan (Doherty) came up with a couple of good saves, but yeah it was definitely backs to the wall.

“They had a couple of gilt-edged chances and they probably felt that they probably should have scored a few and the whole game changes on that, but whenever they didn’t take their chances you suddenly felt then that it might be our day.

“They didn’t start to run out of ideas but they did send a centre-half up front and actually started to put four or five players up top towards the very end, so no matter what happens, you are definitely going to concede a lot of chances, especially also because of Tony Kane’s delivery, as he puts it on the money virtually every time.

“We sat too deep and our distances weren’t right and that’s stuff that we have to work on, but as for guts and determination from a young bunch of lads I can’t ask anymore from them in that sense.”

Prior to the game at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium, Donaghey felt Colin Nixon’s side were in a false position at the bottom of the Lough 45 Championship table and after the encounter he believes his assessment was spot.

“Listen as I said before, Dundela are in a false position and they’ll get points in this league,” he stated.

“They have too much experience and even their subs most of them would probably play in most teams in our division, so I’m delighted we managed to get the win, our second in as many weeks.”

Donaghey believes the future looks bright for young defender Leppard.

The 21-year-old produced a man of the match display against Dundela and the 'Stute boss feels him and a few of his team-mates have the ability to play at a higher level.

“Shaun steps into play and he reads the game very well and he’s such an intelligent lad, who goes to university soon,” he stated.

“You just know that he plays the game with his head, as he never looks flustered, you always feel that he’s going to get there, he doesn’t get into rows and he’s showing experience beyond his years and without putting any pressure on the lad I told him that if he keeps playing like that, he’ll not be here in a years time.

“To be honest I have told all the young boys I don’t want to see half of them in the changing room in a years time, I want them to go on and use us as a stepping stone.

"Shaun was excellent last week at Loughgall and he has continued it this week against Dundela and at his age making performances like that in a tough, tough division, against senior pros, then it augurs well for him, but he has to keep working hard.”