Skipper up against it

If the centre-back does make it then he looks set to be playing through the pain barrier after injuring his right ankle during training last weekend.

“Because the match at Dergview was called off on Saturday, we were training at the pitches across from the ground and during the warm-up I was running backwards and ran straight into a pot hole or divot and wrecked my ankle,” he admitted.

“But it’s lucky enough that the damage isn’t as bad as I first feared, because at the time I thought my ankle was broken, but it’s just badly swollen and I think I might have hurt a few ligaments, but I’m glad it’s that and not the broken bone and hopefully I’ll be alright for Saturday, because it’s healing very quickly.”

The ex-Coleraine man knows how big this weekend’s clash at the Showgrounds is for him and team-mates.

“It has been a tough start for us, but it has also been a good start by us,” he added.

“We started at Carrick and they are one of the favourites for the league, so for us to go up there and come away with a point and maybe could have come away with a win, we were happy enough and then to get our first win, in what was our first home match of the season was a great start for us.

“Now we just want to keep it going at Newry on Saturday, to be honest it’s going to be the toughest of the matches, so it’s a massive game for us.”

The Institute captain also feels that despite the loss of manager Pat McGibbon prior to the season starting, the County Down side are still a force to be reckoned with.

“I think they have kept the majority of their squad from last year and I think their only change really was the manager going, so if the players are still there I’m sure the quality of the team is still there, so it’s definitely going to be a tough one for us.”

The defender has already opened his goalscoring account this season, in fact his header against Tobermore United was ’Stute’s first goal at the Riverside Stadium this campaign, and he’s hoping more will follow.

“Hopefully it’s a goalscoring season for me, but to be honest I wouldn’t be holding my breath until the next goal comes, as I’m not renowned for scoring too many goals, but I was delighted to get myself a wee goal against Tobermore.

“Hopefully I’ll try to chip in with my fair share of goals this season, like a lot of other boys, we can’t just be relying on the forwards scoring the goals, everyone around the pitch has to try and chip in with a few goals, so that takes a bit of pressure off them.

“Goals should be coming all around the pitch, from free-kicks in and around the box and corners if you work at them and we do spend a lot of time on that, so there is no reason why myself and other defender’s and midfielders can’t be chipping in with a few goals.

“At the end of the day having different goalscorers throughout the pitch is going to help the team,” concluded the 32-year-old.