Mo Mahon praises character of Institute players who battle to victory over Ards

​Thankfully the Ards man, who was attended to by 'Stute physio Leah McCready until paramedics arrived, was released from hospital the following morning having fully recovered.

And unlike 'Stute's recent match against Annagh which they led 1-0 until it was abandoned after 60 odd minutes, this one got the green light to resume and Kevin Deery's troops managed to claw out a precious 3-2 victory which took them into fourth spot in the Playr-Fit Championship table.

'Stute's assistant boss Mo Mahon afterwards praised the character shown by the players on a wet and windy night in Bangor having dealt with numerous setbacks in the game before eventually coming out on top.

Indeed, 'Stute found themselves a goal behind after Connor Maxwell fired into the corner but they turned the game on its head through goals from Michael Harris and Orrin McLaughlin before that lengthy stoppage took the wind out of their sails.

Ards capitalised when the game resumed, Aidan Steele scoring a scrappy equaliser in a crowded penalty area four minutes later but 'Stute displayed tremendous spirit and eventually found the winner thanks to Tiernan McKinney who registered his first senior goal!

It's a third win on the bounce for 'Stute and Mahon is delighted with what he's seen from the squad so far this season as they sit just five points off the top with a game in hand over the three teams above them.

"We started slowly and went 1-0 down," explained Mahon. "It took us a while to get into it and then around midway through the first half we started to pick it up.

"We equalised deservedly and then went 2-1 up. The boys showed really good character to come back into it.

“We started the second half really strongly and 10 minutes into the second half one of their players sustained a serious head injury. So we were thinking it was going to be the same as Annagh when the match was abandoned due to an injury.

"We had to wait for an ambulance and waited for 45 minutes. Before that we were at 2-1 and looked as if we would get a third.

"That took our momentum away from us but the break did Ards good and they scored to make it 2-2 within three or four minutes of the restart.

"We were a bit nervous but still showed signs of quality and then we broke and scored probably the best goal of the game. Wee 'Japper' (Ryan Morrow) played in Michael Harris who played a lovely crossfield ball to Tiernan to make it 3-2 and from then on in it was a battle.

"Ards were lumping everything forward but we dealt with it well enough. Coming from behind to win 3-2 shows great character for a young side. It's a tough place to go and it was a windy, cold night and they stood up to it.

"Our boys were probably thinking the game would be called off as it already happened this season. The guy (Ruddy) is okay, thank God but from our point of view, nobody dropped their heads and we deservedly scored the winner.”

It’s been an encouraging start to life under Deery but there’s no one getting carried away.

“We're sitting second with a game in hand. To be honest, we're not looking at the league table. We’re taking it game by game and we're setting out to win every game.”

The start has certainly exceeded expectations.

"Last year the club was almost relegated so we've already gone far past our expectations. It's been a really good start and we just want to continue it."

Mahon left his coaching role with Derry City’s academy to work under Deery at ‘Stute and he hasn’t looked back.

"I'm really enjoying it. Kevin Deery is probably one of the best coaches I’ve seen on the training pitch. He's absolutely outstanding. He's up there with one of the best I've seen so I'm really a lot that way.

"I have my own strengths in terms of managing people, managing environment and stuff like that and myself and Kevin are learning off each other really.”