Soccer

There is room for the two of us: Newry City boss Darren Mullen ahead of Warrenpoint Town derby

Newry boss Darren Mullen is eagerly looking forward to the first-ever Premiership derby with Warrenpoint Town
Newry boss Darren Mullen is eagerly looking forward to the first-ever Premiership derby with Warrenpoint Town Newry boss Darren Mullen is eagerly looking forward to the first-ever Premiership derby with Warrenpoint Town

Danske Bank Irish Premiership: Newry AFC v Warrenpoint Town (tonight, 7.45pm)

NEWRY City boss Darren Mullen says there is plenty of room for themselves and neighbours Warrenpoint Town to flourish in the Irish Premiership as the two clubs prepare for tonight’s first-ever derby in senior football at the Showgrounds.

The sides last met at the end of the 2011/12, which finished scoreless. The fixture turned out to be Newry’s last before they closed their doors.

Warrenpoint, meanwhile, went the other way and broke into senior football for the first time in their history.

Newry were reformed under the guidance of Mullen, Raymie Burns, Mickey Keenan, Jervis McCaul and Gary Boyle and have now joined their near neighbours in the top flight.

“I don’t think either club could have predicted that we would be playing in a Premiership derby so soon after what happened to us,” said Mullen, whose side sit two places above second from bottom Warrenpoint.

“But it’s great for the area, there’s a great buzz, everybody’s talking about the game.

“The fact that Warrenpoint had a good result last week [a 2-1 win over Cliftonville] they’ll probably have more confidence going into this match. But in games like this form goes out the window.”

Mullen described the relationship between the clubs as a “friendly rivalry” - until somebody loses.

“I know their manager Stephen O’Donnell who’s a good lad and all the players will know each other. We’d have more local lads than Warrenpoint.”

The Newry boss added: “Sometimes the higher you go up, the smaller pool of local players you’ll have but we’ve been lucky in that the majority of our players have been doing very, very well.”

Warrenpoint, who gained promotion back to the senior ranks in 2017, have won just one league game out of seven.

And while local pride is at stake tonight, Mullen hopes the two clubs can preserve their place in the Premiership beyond this season.

“I feel there is room for both clubs to be in the Premiership. There are a lot of similarities between the clubs in that we both came through the Mid-Ulster Leagues and we both play good football.”

Under Mullen, Newry won four promotions out of five to earn their place in the senior ranks this season. And while there have been some steep learning curves for his players this season, everyone’s enjoying the experience of playing the elite teams.

“Apart from the first half of the Ards game we’ve acquitted ourselves really well. You get punished for mistakes that you would’ve got away with in the lower leagues and that’s something we need to sort out.

“We’re learning and evolving as a team… I don’t want moral victories and people saying: ‘Newry are a good side and a good club’ and then we go straight back down. So we need to learn pretty quickly. There are teams around us that we need to take points off.

“The Warrenpoint game is an important game but it won’t define anybody’s season.”

Central defender John Boyle is available for Newry tonight after the Warrenpoint GAA player missed last week’s 1-0 defeat to Crusaders.