Institute boss Brian Donaghey sets points target to secure Lough 41 Championship status

Centre-back Shaun Leppard should return to the Institute squad for the Ballyclare Comrades game.

Donaghey believes his side need 40 points to secure their Lough 41 Championship status and expects his squad to look to finish their mini-season of five games on a positive note.

’Stute, who have won their last two matches, will have centre-back Shaun Leppard back from injury, but Jay Riley is now confirmed to be out for the season.

“We now have a mini season and we have a slight advantage at the minute but that can be wiped out in one game, so we’ll be guarding against that,” he stated.

“The minute I came in I felt 40 points was probably going to be a enough and that’s still my target. The boys have trained really well and they are in good spirits, so we are all looking forward to the match against Ballyclare.

“They have had a really rough time of it lately but they seemed to have played a lot of teams who are in the top six so I won’t be guided by their results. They did beat a decent Dergview side only a few weeks ago.

“I say it every week, this league is nuts and if you aren’t at it then you’ll get egg on your face. Hopefully we’ll be doing everything to ensure that doesn’t happen to us on Saturday.

“We can’t afford to get ahead of ourselves and I still have the Queen’s defeat in my head. I can see how good we can be but I can also see how slack we can be as well. Any more performances like the Queen’s game and we’ll get beat again.

"We have to fight for every single point as we did at Knockbreda two weeks ago.”

The Waterside men know three points would see them move a point behind Comrades and Donaghey is hopeful his side can maintain their recent good form.

“We have a chance to maybe drag them into the relegation battle,” he added. “An extra team down there, you just don’t know how a team would be who aren’t use to it but either way, we just have to focus on ourselves and keep doing what we have been doing over the last few games.

“Since Queen’s we’ve won two in a row. Everyone’s played on the front foot and, more importantly, worked really hard and we look a lot more prolific going forward.”