McCrudden and O’Flynn boost Stute for crucial double-header

The Waterside men have two away games in the space of four days starting with Harland & Wolff Welders on Saturday (KO 3pm) followed by a trip to fellow title contenders Carrick Rangers next Tuesday night (KO 6.45pm).

“Our next two games this week really will make or break our season,” said Kee.

“We won’t be far off if we win our remaining three games, but I keep saying it, there are going to be more twist and turns before the end.

“Lisburn Distillery have to play Bangor twice, home and away and that will be interesting to see how those games map out, because I know Distillery are on their day a difficult opponent and they proved that by beating Knockbreda.

“I know Tommy (Kincaid) is a proud man and he isn’t too happy with their season, so he’ll be wanting to finish on a high. He’ll be telling the players that also to see who wants to stay about, but as I keep saying, we just have to worry about ourselves.”

Kee, like any title-chasing manager, is only worried about what his side can do in their remaining games and concedes they probably need to win their remaining games against the Welders, Carrick and already relegated Limavady United if they want to clinch the Championship One title.

“There is still a lot of football to be played elsewhere and we’ll sit back and see what happens, but we can only do what we can do and we just have to try and get as many of the nine points on offer and we’ll see where it takes us,” he said.

“There’s a good concentration from the players, but if I’m to be honest in the first half at Donegal Celtic there was too much care and pride and that held us back a wee bit. But then in the second half we managed things better and we’ll need to manage another big game on Saturday at the Welders.

“We have to try and win on Saturday because draws are no good to us at this point of the season and that’s something we said at Donegal Celtic before the game. Then we have to go into the Carrick game next Tuesday and try to win that game.”

Although McCrudden and O’Flynn return, the Waterside men will be without striker Stephen Parkhouse for those two games because of suspension, nevertheless he does have a selection headache after Hume and Curry produced the goods at Suffolk Road.

And he hopes that the majority of this season’s squad stays at the club for the 2014-15 campaign.

“That is a problem you want at this time of the year,” he said.

“We have a healthy sixteen man squad now at the minute and that’s what will probably see the season out for us.

“Then we’ll see what happens at the end of the season in terms of who wants to stay, but hopefully they’ll all have the option of playing for a Premiership team next season.

“That’s the plan, but there’s still a bit of football to be played before any of that happens.”