Newry City have much work to do, admits new boss Barry Gray despite Irish Cup progress

Newry City star Ciaran O'Connor

Barry Gray began his tenure as Newry City boss with the club’s first victory in 11 games with a 3-2 result against Championship side Ballinamallard to reach the sixth round of the Clearer Water Irish Cup.

But despite that result, the new manager was less than impressed, saying: “It’s clear and obvious for me as the new manager we have much work to do both in terms of our fitness levels and collectively as a group.”

He continued: “Today we’re pleased with the character we’ve seen and the appetite from the players to want to push on and win the game. We’ll take our small win albeit a Cup game but it’s nice to be in the hat for the next round.”

The home side looked comfortable for much of the first half, with two early goals – the first a tap in at the post by Ciaran O’Connor in the fourth minute and the second off the boot of Adam Salley who poked past the advancing keeper in a one-on-one with 19 minutes on the clock.

With the Mallards struggling to string meaningful attacks together, it looked like it was going to be a welcome change of fortunes for City and a handy afternoon for a change, but the visitors pulled a goal back before the break with a low shot from Simon Warrington that drew a delayed reaction from the crowd who thought the ball was going wide.

Four minutes into the second half the match was level at 2-2 when a couple of Ballinamallard throw-ins weren’t dealt with by the Newry defence and with the ball back in the box, it passed through Aaron Arkinson and Warrington before Alex Holder finished to the net.

With that, the confidence seemed to suck right out of Gray’s men, and the opposite happened for the Mallards, but, against the run of play on 73 minutes, a lovely flick back