Enniskillen coach Stevie Welsh is hoping for a positive response from his players following Saturday’s 40-7 defeat away to Instonians.

Skins host CIYMS at Mullaghmeen on Saturday and they will be looking to make a return to winning ways.

“We have a good chance on Saturday to put that right with a home game against CI.

“Hopefully we can get another reaction like we did after the defeat to Clogher earlier in the league, and the boys trained very well on Tuesday night,” he said.

Skins got off to a poor start at Instonians, but Welsh felt that they weren’t as bad as the scoreline suggested.

“It was a strange one,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong – they are a very, very good side – but we started poorly and conceded two early tries, but the next 30 minutes we had all the pressure but we couldn’t get across the line.

“They then had a driving maul to score and another mistake from us saw them get in again, and we found ourselves a bonus point down at half time.

“We made some really silly mistakes, which is uncharacteristic for us.

“It wasn’t that we didn’t match them physically and in attack – we did, bar those spells at the start and the end of the half – but they took their chances, and we didn’t.”

Welsh admits that the loss of some experienced players this season is felt in situations like this, but he is pleased with the progress that the players coming in have made.

“It is frustrating; we have a slightly changed team this year with five or six experienced players not available – and I have to say that all the lads who have come in have been first-class – but at times, you miss that bit of experience in those situations,” he added.

Skins did register late in the game with John Clarke touching down and Adam Lendrum landing the extras, but at that stage the result was well beyond doubt.

Despite the loss, Skins remain in the top four in the Championship Division One table, and Welsh has full confidence that they will stay there.

“It was not the result that we wanted, but I still believe that in terms of top four, we will be there or thereabouts,” he added.