Institute boss Brian Donaghey thrilled with Annagh United win

​The Drumahoe club comfortably seen off promotion chasing Annagh United, at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium and while goalscorers Jamie McCormick and Calvin McCallion will grab the headlines, Donaghey felt the whole team played their part in the win.

Donaghey now concedes that performance is now the benchmark for the squad.

"That was the exact performance I wanted from the boys," he insisted.

"To be honest and this might sound ridiculous but there actually a lot of good things that happened at Ballyclare, without getting any rub of the green and to be honest the best thing about out last two games in particular is that the squad is together.

"They are probably more together now than they have been, probably since I've been here. We had harsh, harsh words a few weeks ago and the penny has finally dropped with a few of them.

"That performance against Annagh is the benchmark now and that's what we're capable of doing and when we play like that at home there's not too many teams that can cope with us.”

The ’Stute boss was thrilled that young goalkeeper Dylan Doherty finally secured his fifth clean-sheet of the season.

"I'm just so happy for Dylan Doherty, he has been sitting on four clean-sheets all season and he probably should have had more, but that's his fifth now and he's getting better week after week and I'm delighted for him,” he added. “Keeping a clean-sheet makes some difference, as it gives you something to hang onto.

"Annagh are a good side and they are up their challenging for promotion, but we always seems to be up for them but I told the players after the game that the win means nothing if we don't go and maybe put a run together and get ourselves as safe as possible as quick as possible and that's our aim.

"We sucked them in and then counter attacked them, we soaked pressure up and we probably could have used the ball better in the final third and broke of them a few other times, but we had a good shape about us and we restricted them to long balls and long diagonal passes and putting the ball into the box and when you have the back-four that we had today (Saturday), to a man they were outstanding.

"It wasn't just down to Shaun Leppard, who returned from injury, because Dylan King must have headed the ball 40/50 times. Rhys McDermott was back to what he was last year; Ronan McAleer never really has a poor game. Jamie McCormick was doubling up on one side and Jamie Dunne was doing the same on the left. To be honest it was probably horrible to play against.

"What we hadn't done in recent weeks was whenever you get your goals it allows you to sometimes do that by working hard, sucking up pressure and hitting sides on the counter attack and that's what we worked on during the week.

"Our plan was to try and get an early front foot approach start, then try to relax a bit, then maybe change our shape around a bit. I thought Oisin Devlin was good when he came on, Jack Millar the same, but to be honest everyone put a shift and I can't single anyone out."