NIFL League Cup
JAMIE Clarke may have been axed from the Crossmaglen Rangers team at the weekend – but he is in contention to earn a second start for Newry City this evening.
Eyebrows were raised when Clarke was dropped from Crossmaglen's match-day panel to face Silverbridge in the Armagh senior football championship on Sunday.
Clarke, who has featured in every game since joining the Irish Premiership club just a few weeks ago, started his first game last Tuesday evening - a Mid-Ulster Cup tie against Dollingstown - and could be retained in Newry’s front line for tonight’s League Cup trip to Limavady United.
The Newry squad will leave their base at 4 o’clock today to be in Limavady on time to prepare.
“I could think of better places to go on a Tuesday night than Limavady,” said Newry City boss Darren Mullen.
“The journey is long enough and Limavady will be decent. They beat Dungannon Swifts in the League Cup last year and they’re a good team, so it’s far from an easy fixture. We’ve done our homework on them as we want to get into the next round of the cup.”
Although they’ve picked up just one win – a 5-1 drubbing of Glenavon - from their first five senior games, Mullen is confident Newry can retain their place in the top flight this season.
“We knew from playing Premiership teams last year that we weren’t a million miles away,” said Mullen, who has twice guided the Co Down club into the Premiership.
“Everything came together in the Glenavon game but we played as well for large parts of the other games but without the goals.”
With last weekend’s fixtures postponed as a mark of respect following the death of the Queen, Newry played an in-house game.
“We were set up for Ballymena last Saturday, but obviously the call was made. So we trained on Saturday morning and I spent the afternoon watching a few Gaelic finals at the pitch across the road from me.”
