After a breakthrough season which was undoubtedly the best of his career to date, Michael Harris still has a sense of unfinished business and wants to help fire Institute into the Premiership having missed out by the narrowest of margins last term.

Harris, who progressed through the ranks at Derry City before spending time with Major League Soccer outfit Colorado Rapids and Finn Harps, joined Kevin Deery at ‘Stute last summer and enjoyed a stellar campaign, scoring 12 times as the County Londonderry club finished second in the Championship to set up a promotion/relegation play-off with Ballymena United.

It was Harris’ injury-time strike in the dying moments of the final match against Portadown which helped Institute progress to that stage and they won the first-leg 1-0 thanks to Danny Lafferty’s thunderbolt, but ultimately Deery’s men lost out 2-1 and stayed in the second-tier.

With that success comes significant outside interest – Oisin Devlin, Dylan King, Shaun Leppard and Lafferty have sealed top-flight moves this summer – but Harris has a newfound determination to see the job through.

placeholder image — Institute striker Michael Harris. PIC: Desmond Loughery/Pacemaker Press

"It was a huge disappointment and it's still lingering about yet...I think it will until we see what happens at the end of this season,” he said. “After a couple of days and once you're back with your family it doesn't seem so bad, but the feeling is still there of wanting to get back and fix the wrong. It's a huge motivation heading into this season.”

While there were enquiries about Harris, the 21-year-old was determined to stay put and repay the faith shown in him by Deery and assistant manager Mo Mahon.

"Mo and Kevin gave me a stage to perform and I'd no worries because they were backing me all the way in every moment,” he added. “Every player makes mistakes but they encourage you to get back on the horse and keep going. You always want to repay that faith they put in you.

"I wanted another year and another crack to get 'Stute up. There is a sense of unfinished business and that feeling from Ballymena is still inside all of us...that feeling of disappointment. It's going to be with me this year and I don't want to be feeling like that again come the end of the season."

Harris finished last season by playing in the three biggest games of his career consecutively – he scored on the night a packed Shamrock Park were present for title celebrations before progressing into the two-legged play-off with Ballymena.

Having got a taste for that type of occasion, Harris wants more of it and is looking to build on a campaign of improvement when Institute get underway against Armagh City on Saturday.

"We were the underdogs last season but we showed quickly that we are here to compete and we're not going to back down,” he said. “Those games were the biggest of my career...I'd never played in something like that.

"The Portadown game was probably the biggest crowd I'd played in front of alongside Ballymena so the experience I got from that was second to none. I loved it. It adds that atmosphere to the game and that bit of competitiveness."