Institute boss Brian Donaghey wants better results on the road

On Saturday, the Drumahoe club suffered their ninth defeat away from the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium, this time narrowly losing 1-0 at Dunde, I'm disappointed to lose on the road again, although I didn't think we deserved to lose," insisted the ’Stute boss.

“Again it's another game where I felt we deserved a point at least from the match, but that seems to be the story of our season away from home so far.

"It's just as well our home form has been very good this season. Our performance the week before was probably as good as I've seen from us in a long time. While we coped better with the conditions at the Brandywell against Annagh a few weeks ago, it was never going to a football match at Dundela last Saturday.

"I'm glad we don't have to go there again this season, the pitch just doesn't suit teams to play good football.

"To be fair to them they're in transition as they've got a few new players in, but it's just difficult to get the ball down and play and it was a complete contrast to the previous week when, in probably worse conditions weather wise, at least at the Brandywell the pitch is big enough to try and play a decent brand of football.

"But listen, everybody has to go there and we can't feel sorry for ourselves. We have to dust ourselves down and we are looking forward to a good week’s training. We've three matches at home now in both the league and Irish Cup, so we need to be picking up points in those league games and that's going to be the aim."

Donaghey also felt that the small Wilgar Park pitch, combined with the terrible weather conditions, meant both sides struggled and but for William Faulkner’s late goal, the encounter would have ended scoreless.

The ’Stute manager admitted having attacking duo Jamie Dunne and Jack McFeely both absent meant his team looked a little light in the attacking third.

However he also pointed out that his squad were again totally committed and he’s hoping in the not too distance future his team will come out on the right side of a single goal encounter, especially away from home.

"What was disappointing for us was that the game looked like it had a 0-0 written all over it and their goal was the only shot on target in the whole second half,” he added.

"The game was just a war of attrition. The two teams were winning second balls and losing second balls, there was very little football played, because the conditions were horrendous.

"Both teams were just playing for territory and it became a very difficult game to be honest for the players to manage. It was because of that I thought it was going to end 0-0.

"I thought the players' application was really good but we definitely lacked a wee bit of cutting edge up top. Having Jack and Jamie missing from our front line meant we probably lacked that bit of sharpness up front, sharpness which Jack and Jamie bring to our play.”