Kevin Deery frustrated by Institute's Irish Cup heartbreak against Loughgall

Trailing 2-0 at the break, Deery's men produced a superb second half display in which Mikhail Kennedy's brace brought them level and placed 'Stute in the box-seat to progress to a last 16 tie with Premier Intermediate club, Dollingstown. However, just when they appeared to have the tie where they wanted it, Loughgall’s Fra McCaffrey was afforded the freedom of the 'Stute penalty area to glance home an 88th minute headed winner that left Deery scratching his head.

"It's been one of those seasons," reflected the 'Stute manager afterwards, "Our overall performances have been quite good, as has our general play, but sometimes in our own box and defensively we are giving ourselves far too much to do.

"Having to come back from two goals down to 2-2, to then letting momentum swing back to Loughgall; I just felt, well, I got a message to Mikhail (Kennedy, team captain) at 2-2 to keep doing the things we were doing. We were getting it in to the forward players quicker and then supporting but then we decided to play through midfield again and go to full-backs. We were just a bit slow in our build up play.

"We had been getting great joy from being a bit more direct and winning it back off them early but we didn't smell those moments in the game. Again, it was just a bit naive, not recognising what was working and then venturing away from it after doing so well to get it back to 2-2."

First half goals from Alberto Balde and James Carroll had Loughgall cruising at the break but ’Stute were transformed in the second half which made the late momentum switch back toward the Co Armagh men all the harder for Deery to understand.

"We didn't give up any opportunities until the last two minutes when young Aidan (Hegarty) has tried to get tight - he does everything right - but obviously he gets done on the inside. You can't fault the young lad's effort on his debut, for such a young lad he was excellent throughout the game.

"Even after that, we've outnumbered them in the box for the cross but none of our players are touch tight to the centre forward who scores a free header. If you cannot get through an Irish Cup tie to get into a potential last 16 game against Dollingstown or Ballyclare, that's plenty of motivation to kick on there, but we simply didn't do it.

"We haven't played since December 30th and there was definitely a rustiness there in our decision making; not in our legs or our fitness, but our heads were a bit scrambled. We weren't clear minded enough.

"Listen, I can't fault the players' efforts but the manner in which we gave the goals away is what is killing us,” he added.