​New boy Brandon Diau in line for Institute debut against Welders

The former Congo youth international joined from Portadown on Wednesday and could be in line for a debut against Paul Kee's team who sit third after a draw against Bangor and victory over Ballinamallard in their opening two games.

'Stute too are unbeaten but the nature of last week's 2-2 draw against Dundela in which they conceded a 95th minute equaliser left Deery frustrated and he moved to secure the signature of a player who started out at Bayer Leverkusen’s academy and has played in seven countries.

Diau has also built up a significant online following with over 284,000 people tracking his football journey on TikTok while the videos on his ‘365 Challenge’ account have received a whopping 8.7million likes.

"We've obviously lost two centre backs from last year, well, three, to be honest," explained Deery, "Bobby Deane's gone back to Glenavon but they've loaned him to Ards and we lost Dylan King half way through the window, which we weren't expecting, to Dungannon Swifts.

"Then obviously Shaun Leppard went to Cliftonville so we needed to get a presence in at the heart of our defence. We played against Brandon a few times last year and he did well against us. We know he's something of a social media sensation and that brings hype and interest but we're solely focused on him improving us as a team.

"We needed that sort of presence, height and aggression, and his willingness to be a professional as well which has been brilliant. It was a straightforward deal to get done which is always good."

Diau made 11 appearances and scored once in Portadown's championship winning season last year and Deery said he was delighted to welcome him onboard.

"Listen, you'd know from the personnel we've lost (what we needed). You don't need to be a football genius to understand that," he added, "We felt we needed that presence and, listen, we still feel we might be just one more away from having that competition as well.

"You build your team on your defence and we had good competition there last season but unfortunately where we are and where our budget is, it's really difficult to replace those players

"It's been the format since I've been at 'Stute. We've always turned over our players to the Premiership, but I suppose you can look at the positives in that you're doing something right if you're losing 4 or 5 of your best players every year to the top division."

It could be a baptism of fire for Diau this weekend when two in-form Brandywell old boys take centre stage. Mikhail Kennedy has been superb since joining in January from Crusaders and has already scored in both 'Stute's league games this season while another ex-Derry City man, David Parkhouse, hit all four for Welders as they trounced 'The Mallards' last week.

"They are two brilliant lads," added Deery, "Mikhail was playing with Crusaders last year and credit to himself, he just wanted to come and enjoy his football. He looked at the project we put forward and he really liked it and he's enjoying this football again which is brilliant for us as a group.

"David (Parkhouse) was at Ballymena after Derry and he's come down to the Championship and scored four last week. He definitely has to be earmarked as one we have to watch tightly. We can't allow him any room in or around the box because you'll punish you.

"Listen, Welders have started really well. They got a hard fought draw away to Bangor who are always right up there and they've scored six goals in their first two games so we're under no illusions that we are in for a tough game.

"But we want to implement our own style of game. We want to get on the front foot and score goals ourselves so it's a makes for an exciting game, but hopefully one where we come out on the right end the result."