McAlinden: We were poor against Institute

Larne drew 1-1 with Kevin Deery’s side at the Riverside Stadium and the Inver Reds boss admitted: “I don’t think there’s any doubt about that, the collective energy levels appeared to be well below normal against Institute. In the end we came away with a point and, in truth, it’s maybe even more than we deserved from the game.

“We led until inside the last 15 minutes or so, but we were poor and cannot complain about the result at all. There was no particular part of the team which disappointed, it was just a bad day all round.

“I can only blame the huge amount of energy expended against Portadown. We gave our everything and got a stoppage time goal to force extra time, before they got the upper hand on a memorable night.

“As I said, that directly impacted on the league display against Institute and now we have just four points from four fixtures, which is obviously fewer than we would have wanted at this stage. However, it’s still one more than we had at this time last year.”