​​Kevin Deery delighted with players' character as 10 man Institute battle back at Dergview

​The 'Stute boss deserves huge credit himself for emptying his bench of attacking players in search of salvaging what appeared a lost cause for the visitors who were a man down and faced a two goal deficit with four minutes of normal time remaining.

The Brandywell based outfit now take on Annagh in a rescheduled match at the BMG Arena tonight with an opportunity to move top of the table should Dundela fail to beat Dergview.

On Friday night Dergview adapted quickest to the foggy conditions and almost frozen pitch on a wintry night in Castlederg and were fully worthy of their 1-0 advantage at the break as Niall McGinley blasted in a spotkick on 44 minutes after Ryan Morrow tumbled Shane McMonagle 12 yards from goal.

Deery and the offending 'Stute defender were furious with the decision but referee Steward Long was well placed and made no hesitation when pointing to the spot.

The 'Stute boss clearly didn't like what he saw in the first half where Dergview twice wasted one-on-one chances on the counter attack with Jamie Browne and Padraig Lynch in particular causing problems for the visiting defence. Gareth Muldoon twice made solid saves to keep Dergview's lead to a minimum.

Indeed, Deery brought experienced front man Sean McCarron on at half-time and he became the protagonist in the unlikely comeback. He could very well have won a penalty of his own moments after the restart when he did brilliantly to skip past two Dergview defenders inside the penalty box before seemingly being brought to ground but the referee waved away protests.

It was to go from bad to worse for 'Stute after that as they failed to close down the ball and allowed a cross into the penalty area and McMonagle pounced from close range to double Dergiew's lead.

'Stute began to unravel and Evan Tweed lost his discipline receiving a yellow card for dissent on 49 minutes and a second booking three minutes later for illegally stopping a Dergview counter on the halfway line.

It was an indefensible red card and the former Derry City man's second of the season but it simply galvanised Institute with Deery unwilling to settle for a defeat which would end an impressive three match winning run.

He threw on Orrin McLaughlin, Kirk McLaughlin, Cormac Burke and Mark Mbuli who all made positive contributions with McCarron bundling the ball over the line on 84 minutes before a cross from the left side was again poked home after a scramble in the box by the striker to salvage a point which leaves them just two points behind leaders Portadown who lost 2-0 to Dundela on Saturday.

"My players showed brilliant character and they've shown that all season," said a relieved Deery at the final whistle.

"The five subs that came on the pitch had a brilliant impact. We went down to 10 men and Evan [Tweed] knows himself so we don't need to be too harsh with him but there's been a few times now this year and his teammates dug him out.

"Two nil down with 10 men, few would've given us a chance but we kept going and looked as if we could've won it in the end. We were pushing for the winner which epitomises what I have in that dressing room.

"Tonight was a difficult night in terms of the fog coming down and the frozen pitch. Dergview took a really bad beating to Knockbreda last week and we knew there was going to be a response from them.

"Derrgview will have no problem telling you that they're bang up for 'Stute games and want to take us on so it was a brilliant response from our players.

"We spoke about what they have. They have two really lively strikers at this level, young Brown and Lynch. Both of them are a handful and today both of them showed up and caused us trouble. The penalty I felt was a bit harsh and in the first half I didn't think we gave up too many chances.

"Second half we looked a bit nervous for eight or 10 minutes at the start and gave away a second goal so that's what we have to address and look at. We have to come out with a better mindset and come out on the front foot and get after teams.

“It was a bit of a leveller tonight with the pitch which was frozen hard but we had to get on with it. It was a tough game but I felt we deserved to get something out of it."

It was the most unlikeliest of comebacks but ‘Stute were patient and flooded the Dergview box as the home team began to retreat in the dying moments of the game.

"I'll not give our secret away what we do when we go down to 10 men but a lot of the times we've gone down to 10 men. Some people would bring an extra defender on or play four across the middle with one up but we don't, we try and keep our two up.

"I'll not give away too many other things we do but we play with two strikers like we always have done this season. We've been down to 10 men four or five times and we've always went with two up and went attacking and we got our rewards today.

I'm delighted for our players. We didn't want to come up here and ruin the run we're on.

“We have Annagh now on Tuesday night which will be a difficult night for us and we have to be much better defensively from what we showed tonight.”

Dergview: Doherty, Parke, Falconer, Corrigan, Cowan, Burns, McLaughlin, McGinley, Browne, McMonagle, Lynch subs Groogan, Fielding, Maxwell, McDonagh, Gibson, McCloskey, Nethery

Institute: Muldoon, Morrow, Quigley, Leppard, Tweed, Mullan, McKinney, Carlin, Harris, Devlin, Boyle subs McConnellogue, O. McLaughlin, K. McLaughlin, Burke, Mbuli, King, McCarron

Referee - Stewart Long.