Newry City tasted a league defeat for the first time this season at Valley Rangers on Tuesday night when a hat trick from Andy Graham helped the home side complete a 4-2 win. With Valley challenging near the top of the table Newry would have known that they would have to be at their best to get anything from the game and as manager Darren Mullen confirmed after the game the visitors did not turn up with their “A” game “We can’t expect to defend the way we did and win a game. The disappointing thing is that they didn’t have to work hard to get their goals. After starting poorly we responded in the right way but then made things difficult for ourselves with some basic defensive mistakes. We had most of the possession second half but credit to Valley they made things difficult for us and were hard to break down. This is our first league defeat of the season so there’s no need to panic. The measure of a team is how they respond to a defeat and I expect a reaction this Friday night.” Graham gave an early warning that he was going to be hard to handle in the 7^th minute when he beat the Newry off side trap, the ball however forcing the striker wide which gave Peter Murphy the chance to narrow Grahams shooting angle and divert his shot for corner. Worse was to follow for the visitors when the resulting corner skimmed off a Newry head at the front post setting up Richard Hamilton arriving at the back post to power a header past Murphy to put Valley a goal up. Newry’s reply was swift, a fine passing movement down the Newry right wing culminating in a Keith Johnston cross which Decky Carville met with a perfect header from the penalty spot to level the score.  Carville grabbed his 2^nd goal on the half hour mark, a clever run to the near post perfectly timed to meet a Jimmy Walker corner, Carville using the pace on the cross to flick the ball past Nathan Teggarty before the Valley keeper had time to react. Newry failed to build on this however with Valley scoring twice before the break. First Andy Graham rose highest at the back post to head past Murphy to level the score’s and the same player got his second and Valleys third on 40 minutes when the Newry defence failed to deal with a low ball into their box, Graham making no mistake with his shot from close range leaving Valley 3-2 in the lead at the break.

Determined to hold onto their unbeaten league record Newry were much better in the second half.  The second period was only minutes old when they created the first of many chances to level the scores. Sean McMullan held the ball up in a central position before playing the ball wide to Sean Hand. Taking the ball to the end line Hand pinged a low ball across goal alas too quickly for Johnston who’s lunge was inches away from turning the ball across the line. Minutes later and it was Thomas McCann’s turn to test Teggarty, picking the ball up on half way and making ground before firing in a shot which had the Valley keeper scrambling across goal, grateful to see the ball go the far side of his post by a small margin. At this stage Newry were camped in the Valley half but were unable to conjure up that one necessary clear cut goal chance. On 70 minutes Mark Patton who had been introduced into the Newry attack found himself wide on the left wing. With fleet of foot the big man nut megged his marker and put yet another dangerous ball across the Valley goal which Stuart Patterson did well to clear. Minutes later Patton was back in his more natural role rising highest at the back post to head a corner agonizingly wide. And as so often happens to a team who do not make the most of possession Newry paid the price when Graham who brought a threat to the Newry defence every time he was near the ball once more caused havoc in the Newry rear guard, his presence causeing a mix up between Murphy and his defenders. Graham quick to latch on to the mistake, round the keeper who had advanced to the edge of his box and calmly grab his hat trick to put the game and points out of Newry’s reach. To their credit the visitors didn’t give up and created one more chance which summed up their evening, McMullan setting up Patton for one last chance, his effort rapping the base of the post with Teggarty beaten.

Newry City AFC: Murphy, McMahon, Edgar, Curran, McCaul, Walker, McCann, Carville, McMullan, Johnston, Hand. Subs: Patton, Mullen, Grant, Mooney.

Newry City moved into the semi final of the Marshall Cup with a comprehensive win at Tandragee Rovers on Saturday when two goals from Sean McMullan and one from Decky Carville secured their eighth win in a row and a home semi final against Banbridge Rangers.

Fresh from a double figure victory last week Newry played some delightful passing football and created a host of chances, the first coming after five minutes when Thomas McCann and Decky Carville exchanged passes in the middle of the park before finding Keith Johnston wide on the right. Johnston, who was to have an excellent game, turned his marker inside out before crossing to the penalty spot where Sean McMullan had his first attempt on goal of the day, a headed effort which was blocked by a Tandragee defender.

Johnston himself had the next strike on goal, once more Carville provided the opportunity, from wide on the right Johnston took the ball into the box and from an acute angle attempted to steer the ball into the far corner unfortunately pitching his shot too close to Richard McGivern. At the other end any danger to the Newry goal was snuffed out by the Newry defence with Conor McCaul and in particular Ian Curran looking unbeatable.

Newry almost opened the scoring on the half hour mark when Johnston once more got the better of his opponent before whipping a cross into the box which was met by Thomas McCann, unfortunate to see his header canon off the cross bar with McGivern beaten. The danger had not passed with McGivern coming to his sides’ rescue, Jimmy Walker picking up the rebound, skipping along the edge of the penalty area to make room for a shot which McGivern gratefully smothered. The visitors were piling on the pressure and almost immediately created another great chance. Beginning in their own half with Graeme Edgar who rolled the ball to Carville, the move burst into life when Carville turned, fed the ball to McMullan before running onto the return pass. Now bearing down on goal and with McGivern advancing from his line Carville flicked a shot with the outside of his foot denied by a Tandragee defender who had retreated to the goal line to clear.

Newrys opening goal came on 37 minutes. In possession mid way inside the Newry half Tandragee attempted to switch play from right to left with a cross field ball which was read by Chris McMahon who intercepted the pass and knocked the ball forward all in the same movement. McMahon continued into the Tandragee half before finding Walker on the edge of the box. With the deftest of flicks Walker laid the ball back to McMullan who swept a curling shot around a wall of players into the bottom corner of the Tandragee net. Newry could have had the game wrapped up by half time creating further chances before the break.

First Conor McCaul strode out of centre defence taking the ball mid way inside the Tandragee half before finding Johnston out wide. Johnston again tormented his marker, this time with a nutmeg, before picking out the run of Timmy Grant along the six yard box, his shot charged down only as far as McMullan who was denied by McGivern.

And on the stroke of half time McMahon once more ventured forward, playing a one two with Walker before drilling his shot past McGivern but denied a goal by a covering Tandragee defender who cleared from his goal line leaving the half time score 1-0 in Newry’s favour.

The second half started slowly taking some 15 minutes before either goal was threatened. This time it was Tandragee who were unfortunate Dean McCammond whipping a low cross to the near post, Johny Black the first to the ball which he poked inches wide of the upright. That was to be as close as the home side came to scoring with McCaul and Curran mopping up when there was a sniff of danger to the Newry goal. In reply to Blacks chance Newry’s response was instant, Grant cutting in from the left to find Walker, he in turn teeing up McMullan and with the big man about to pick his spot the ball took a little bobble which caused him to blast over McGivern’s cross bar. Newry doubled their advantage on 70 minutes with a well worked free kick some 25 yards from goal, Walker picking out the run of Carville to the near post area, Carville flicking the ball with a glancing header back across McGivern nestling inside the far side netting to put Newry 2-0 up.

The visitors kept pressing Walker playing the ball into space in front of Johnston. Again the winger got the better of his marker taking the ball to the end line before pulling it back into the box where Walker stepped over it allowing the ball to run into the path of Patton who kept his strike, from the edge of the box, low but unfortunately straight at McGivern who saved. There was little McGivern could do about the final goal of the day. Created by Neil Mullen who picked the ball up inside his own half Mullen strode forward and with everyone expecting a pass to Walker who had kept pace with him, Mullen cleverly switched play across the box to McMullan who had pulled away from goal and now with time and space picked his spot drilling the ball past McGivern into the back of the Tandragee net to finish the tie.

After the game as ever Newry manager Darren Mullen was keen to take one game at a time “If anyone thought that we wouldn’t put as much effort into the last remaining cup with important league games coming up then they were sorely mistaken. We attacked Tandragee from the first minute and should have been more than a goal up at the break. The strength of our squad showed today with Keith Johnston coming in as a late replacement and he was a constant threat throughout the game.

“Replacing Stephen McCabe so early in the game also allowed Timmy Grant to get a good workout and he will be a big addition in our remaining games. Our goals have been creating headlines lately but our defence deserve great credit for another clean sheet. Any successful team is built on a solid defence and they were super again today. Conor McCaul looked like he had never been away and along with Murphy, McMahon, Edgar and Curran they dealt with anything Tandragee had to offer. Ian Curran in particular reads the game so well and won everything in the air today. Winning becomes a habit and whilst we are on a good run there’s still a lot of work to do and we will now concentrate on Tuesday night.”

Newry now have two league games in quick succession. On Tuesday 12^th they travel to Bignian Park to play Valley Rangers KO 7:30 PM. Travel club bus will leave The Stonebridge at 6:15 PM. On Friday (15th) Newry welcome Lower Maze to The Showgrounds KO 7:45 PM.

Newry City AFC: Murphy, McMahon, Edgar, McCaul, Curran, McCann, Walker, Carville, McMullan, Johnston, McCabe. Subs: Grant, McArdle, Patton, Mullen.

If goal difference is needed to separate the teams at the top of Mid Ulster Intermediate A at the end of the season then Newry City did themselves a power of good on Saturday when they blasted Seapatrick 13 – 0 at Havelock Park. Adding to the goal difference tally however was only an added bonus for Newry as the primary objective was to secure the point’s that go with a win.

Strangely in a game in which they scored so many goals it took Newry almost 20 minutes to break the dead lock.  And before that they could easily have had the game won, a mixture of bad finishing, bad luck and a fine save from the Seapatrick keeper Gary Anderson keeping the scores level. That changed after 18 minutes when Newrys best player on the day Jimmy Walker swung a high ball into the penalty area for which Anderson and Sean McMullan competed. With neither winning clean possession the ball fell perfectly for Decky Carville arriving into the box at the right time to be presented with the simplest of tasks to walk the ball into the empty net. In reply Seapatrick had their first shot of the game, a speculative effort from 25 yards which bounced in front of Peter Murphy requiring sure handling to complete the save. Newrys second goal on the half hour mark was perhaps the best goal of the day. With time on the ball inside his own half Ian Curran spotted the wide run of Stephen McCabe and flighted a perfect pass just over the head of the Seapatrick defender who committed to the interception rather than tracking McCabe. Now with space to exploit McCabe raced to the end line before whipping the ball across the face of the Seapatrick goal perfect for McMullan to slide in at the back post to grab his first goal of the game. The avalanche had started, Newry going 3-0 up on 36 minutes when a Graeme Edgar throw in beat the entire Seapatrick defence allowing Walker to run onto the ball and square it for any one of three Newry players to finish, Thomas McCann doing the honours with a side foot shot past Anderson. It was Edgar once more who ventured forward to create number four, the defender ruthlessly chopped down in the box as he was about to shoot. The resultant penalty gave the league’s top scorer McMullan the opportunity to add to his goals figure which he took with ease. At this stage the Seapatrick keeper was getting little protection from his team mates, Newry scoring number five on 42 minutes when a Walker free kick was allowed to travel all the way to the back post where Carville turned it home for his second of the day. And there was still time for another before the break, this time McMullan was himself tripped inside the box, the big man dusting himself down to claim his hat trick with his second penalty of the day.

There was to be little respite for Seapatrick on the resumption Newry taking the score line to double figures within eight minutes. Number seven came courtesy of possession won by a crunching McCann tackle. Carville swept the ball wide to the over lapping Edgar who in turn found McCabe, the winger taking his chance well to start a second half goal rush. Minutes later it was eight, Walker again involved picking the ball up inside the Seapatrick half before tricking a path to the edge of the area and firing in a shot which Anderson could only block, as expected ace goal scorer McMullan was the first to the loose ball which he poked over the line. Even massive wins such as Saturdays require hard graft in midfield and Newrys ninth goal scored by Kevin McArdle was celebrated by the players as if it was their first of the day. Again Walker was the architect waiting on McArdle, the man who does all the hard work in the Newry midfield, to make his run into the box before playing a slide rule pass which McArdle clinically finished past Anderson. Goal number 10 owed much to a surging run from Chris McMahon from right back straight up field to inside the box where he unselfishly slipped the ball into the path of Walker who guided the ball with the outside of his right boot curling it in an arc to land inside the side netting.

Inevitably Newry took their foot off the pedal after this scoring burst eventually running out 13 goal winners with further strikes from McMullan for his 5^th of the day, Carville for his hat trick and a final goal which had the current squads hall mark all over it, neat passing between Carville, Walker and McCann ended with a cross to the back post which Keith Johnston headed back across goal for Walker to tuck home to round off the scoring.

Despite the heavy defeat credit must go to Seapatrick who kept their discipline and competed right to the final whistle in a game in which others may have thrown in the towel and also to local referee Paul Kelsey who got all the major decisions correct and kept play flowing throughout. Obviously after the game Newry manager Darren Mullen was content with his team’s performance “It’s not too often you score 13 goals in a game and although we will certainly face tougher opponents the players deserve great credit for sticking to our game plan. Sometimes in a game like this players can lose focus and it can become a scenario where everyone wants to score. When that happens you lose shape and discipline which can carry into the next game. We didn’t allow that to happen and Seapatrick were unfortunate to be on the end of a ruthless performance. The fact that we didn’t score until nearly 20 minutes yet kept the patience in our play was very pleasing. To also play the last 20 minutes with 10 men having used up all our substitutions showed the fitness level in the squad. There will be sterner tests coming up but we have shown we can lift our performance when tested and we now look forward to Saturday’s cup quarter final at Tandragee”

Newry City now travel to play Tandragee in the Marshall Cup on Saturday, kick off @ 2:15pm. Travel club bus will leave The Stonebridge @ 1pm

Newry City AFC: Murphy, McMahon, Edgar, Mooney, Curran, McArdle, Walker, Carville, McMullan, McCann, McCabe, Subs: Patton, Johnston, McCaul, Hand, Hadden