Sean Connor 'not panicking' as 'Stute build towards sustainable future

Necessity breeds innovation and as Institute simply can't outspend their rivals, Connor and the club's Board have had to look at novel ways to compete and effectively defy their budget.

The development of the club's youngsters is one pathway to a sustainable future and while Institute fielded the youngest team in the Irish Championship on the opening day of the season, it was more by necessity than desire.

Connor has warned against an overreliance on his talented youngsters who are continuing to learn their trade and vows to protect them by integrating them slowly into first team affairs.

And with experienced senior players on the verge of returning from injury, including skipper Cormac Burke, Connor believes the future of the club is bright should those young players be afforded time to develop.

"I know I'm asking young players to come in and deal with situations and take responsibility that they shouldn't have to take responsibility for," said the 'Stute boss.

"I have a lot of young players in my squad who need time to develop. The Board knows our strategy this year is about consolidating. It's about getting young players in and giving them opportunities. I feel sorry for my young players right now because we've missed our senior players.

"Whenever we get those players back we will be able to integrate the young players into the team as planned, gradually over a period of time. "They will develop and over the next two years Institute will develop into a very good team because we'll be bringing through 18 and 19 year-olds who will have played a lot of senior football.

"We realise we can't compete financially so we have to look at a different way. We need to bring in young players, give them experience and get them into our first team. We need to build an environment where the group is really tight. As a group we are stronger than what we are individually and that's only going to happen with time.

"Myself and the Board have sat down and understand this is our long term strategy. We need to bring young players through. It's been a difficult start because we didn't have those four or five experienced players that you need to help those young players develop."

Back-to-back defeats to Dergview (5-0) and Ballyclare Comrades (3-1) have been far from ideal but given the recent injury crisis and difficulties in securing transfer targets, Connor is far from despondent.

"I have absolutely no worries about this season," he declared. "We will finish comfortably midtable. We want to finish higher but with young players it will take time. I'm not panicking, I'm very calm because I know what we have coming back and know what ability we have with these young players.

"It's very important for me to make sure the young players aren't affected by the opening results and it's important our supporters understand these are young players, they're inexperienced and will make mistakes but that's all part of their learning process and their development."

Transforming the club into one at the cutting edge of analytics would be the ideal scenario to give Institute an advantage over their rivals and so Connor was delighted to take the first step towards that goal when appointing the experienced Gerry Crossan as Head of Performance Analysis this week to enhance and supplement the work of the coaching staff.

"I lost a lot of staff and identified Gerry Crossan who is coming in as Head of our Performance Analysis," he confirmed. "In modern football it is such a key role.

"For one, it helps the coach pick their team. There are metrics within that I can use for training, team selection etc but it's only as good as the information you extract and how you use that information but it's a vital tool.

"Gerry is well connected within the Donegal soccer community. He's been coaching in Ramelton, Swilly Rovers and a few other teams for years. He's been a coach and has fine-tuned his skills as a performance analyst and he's been very, very helpful. He knows exactly what I'm looking for.

"Although our staff is small we need this performance analyst to get an edge in other ways. We can't sign experienced players then we need to use performance analysis to help our younger players."