Institute complete four deadline day signings

Parkhill and Riley join on-loan from Coleraine for the remainder of the season while Doherty has signed a similar deal from Finn Harps, but Henderson, who was at the club as a youngster during the 2014-15 season, has signed a permanent deal from Ballinamallard United.

“Ian has over 200 games for Coleraine. He’s played in Europe, won the Irish Cup and the League Cup, he’s a serial winner,” stated Donaghey, “His work-rate is phenomenal and he’ll get us up the pitch and be a massive threat for us in the final third. He’s looking forward to coming and getting games under his belt and then seeing what happens in the summer.

"Jay is a young talented full-back, who only recently came back from Brentford, where he had a good trial by all accounts. I know Oran (Kearney) and a lot of people at Coleraine think highly of him, so hopefully he can further his development with us over the coming weeks and months.

“I have always liked Gary. He played under Paul (Kee) when he was 16 or 17, when we were in the Premiership, and he acquitted himself really well. He has had a couple of injuries and was just out of the loop with Ballinamallard because they have such a strong squad and I was delighted to get him over the line. I think he’ll be a massive addition to our midfield options.

“Stephen Doherty was one of my first possible signings and I have been in contact with Finn Harps since September or October. He was actually up at Cliftonville and did a bit of training with Paddy (McLaughlin). They were impressed with him but he picked up a small groin problem and nothing materialised but having spoken to Ollie (Horgan), thankfully we got something sorted with Finn Harps.

“I told Ollie that we could give him a bit of game-time between now and the end of the season and like Ian Parkhill, it’s a case of seeing how things are in the summer.”

In total, the Drumahoe club have added ten players - Jake Morrow, Gareth Brown, Mark McFadden, Caolan McLaughlin, Ciaran Deery, Gareth Muldoon and today's new additions - to their panel throughout January and Donaghey has the added bonus of extra time on the training pitch with his new look squad this weekend as ’Stute have no fixture.

“Getting players in was much needed as we are now at the business end of the season and we know that we are in a dog-fight,” he insisted.

“However, I think that with that bit of experience from Parky, Hendo and Stephen, who all bring top-flight football with them, it will help us. I have probably asked a lot of some of the younger players coming in and out of the squad to compete at this level. To be honest they have done, really, really well. In fact they have performed brilliantly, but we shouldn’t have to be calling on them on a weekly basis.

“Dipping younger players in and out for say 20 or 30 minutes is what every manager wants but I’ve had to play young players for entire games and that’s not fair on them but those are the cards I was dealt. As I said they have done remarkably well for me but that bit of experience coming in now I feel is what we need.

“We have introduced an extra night’s training session so we’ll have six training sessions before our next game at home to Loughgall on February 12th which will be good for the whole squad to get used to the new signings.

“I don’t expect the new players to take too long to settle in terms of the style of play and stuff like that but, yeah, I’m glad there’s a bit of a short break as we have no competitive game this weekend and it will give us all a bit of extra time to get to know each other as a squad.”