Newry City secured three valuable points with a very comfortable victory away to Crewe Utd on Saturday. In a game which they dominated from start to finish the final five goal winning margin was far from flattering. Marshalled superbly by central defensive duo of Paul Donegan and Conor McCaul the Newry goal was never under any risk and with Man of the Match Chris McMahon and Kenny Kearns dominating midfield it was always only a matter of getting the first goal.

Newry looked like scoring as early as the second minute when Aaron Brilly released Mark Lowry with a long diagonal pass over the defence giving Lowry a free run at goal, the Newry man forcing Rogan Crothers in the Crewe goal into a fine save.

Brilly created Newrys next chance minutes later when he broke down the left wing, cut back from the end line and spotted Mark Patton unmarked on the edge of the box, Patton unfortunate to see his first time shot graze the cross bar as it skimmed the top of the net.

Newry were attacking down both flanks with both full backs pushing forward Niall Crilly supplying the next Newry chance when he linked up with Lowry to create a chance for Kenny Kearns who flashed his half volley just wide from the edge of the area.

The pressure had to tell and Newry duly opened the scoring on the half hour mark when Lowry crossed from the left wing, Kearns nodded the ball down to Patton who swivelled and shot low and hard past Rogan Crothers to put Newry 1-0 up.

The second goal nearly came straight from the kick off. McMahon regained possession before hitting a long ball towards Patton which the big man won nodding the ball into the path of the over lapping Crilly who bore down on goal and from an acute angle fired in a low cross which the Crewe defence did well to deflect around the post with Brilly lurking.

Newry manager Darren Mullen has drilled patience into his players and this match was a great example of a team willing to maintain possession and wait for the correct opportunity. This theory bore fruit just before half time. Since scoring Newry enjoyed almost 100% possession content to recycle the ball around the team waiting for an opening. That moment came on 42 minutes when Kearns spotted Lowry’s run along the Crewe defence and from 30 yards out played a penetrating ball perfectly into his path, Lowry not breaking his stride as he collected the pass and rounded the keeper to score from a wide angle.

The second half was similar to the first with Newry dominating play content to pick their moment. Perhaps the only disappointing aspect of the day for Newry was that the third goal did not come until the 75^th minute. As with many Newry goals number three was down to the pace of Lowry. Crilly played the ball into space with Lowry chasing. When the Crewe defender committed to winning the ball Lowry’s speed got him there first nipping in to knock the ball to the end line from where he whipped in a cross which was cleared from the goal line by a Crewe defender. Unfortunately for Crewe the clearance only reached Keith Johnston who instantly controlled before shooting to the far bottom corner of the Crewe net with the outside of his right foot for an assured finish.

Goals four and five came in the final minutes. On 85 minutes Kearns again played a through ball which Johnston latched on to, his shot from the corner of the box finished to the net by Lowry as he slid in at the far post. And it was the old war horse McMullan who rounded up the scoring when Crilly and Johnston combined to give him a shooting chance from inside the box which he took with aplomb.

Newry manager Darren Mullen was content with his team’s performance “After playing well in our defeat to Armagh City during the week it was important that we carried that level of performance into this league game. We did exactly that and could have been three or four up after 15 minutes. Our first half was some of the best football we have played this season. We made sure that the players knew that that had to be maintained for the full 90 minutes and in the end we ran out easy winners. It was an excellent team performance and with a bench that had another five players who could all start for us having a big squad is now paying dividends”.

Newry City AFC: Murphy, Crilly, O’Connor, Donegan, McCaul, Kearns, Walker, McMahon, Brilly, Patton, Lowry, Subs: McMullan, Johnston, Barr, Moan, Edgar.

Newrys next match is at home on Saturday 8^th November in the Irish Cup against Hanover, kick off 3pm. Come and show your city your support!!!

Three picture book goals and three points was the Newry City return from Saturdays Mid Ulster League tie at The Showgrounds against Seapatrick. However, that does not tell the full story of a match in which Seapatrick defended stoutly obviously determined not to suffer a repeat of last Saturdays four goal cup defeat by Newry.

The first twenty minutes of the game saw incessant Newry pressure with half chances falling to Brilly, McMahon and Crilly but very much against the run of play it was Seapatrick who almost opened the scoring. With little threat to the Newry goal and the ball safely at the feet of Peter Murphy, a misplaced short kick out was intercepted by a Seapatrick player now with a free run on goal. With Murphy stranded it looked like Seapatrick only had to get the shot on target to score. However that was not allowing for the excellence of Murphy who got back into position and twisted in mid air as he dived to get a strong hand to the shot deflecting it on to the cross bar also benefiting from a piece of good fortune as the rebound landed within his reach.

The home side made the most of this reprieve going ahead on the hour mark with a goal made by their captain Chris McMahon. Picking up possession inside his own half McMahon drove at the Seapatrick defence beating tackles as he brought the ball to the end line. Composure required McMahon cut back inside before picking out the run of Aaron Brilly across the six yard line, Brilly meeting the cross with a powerful first time shot which crashed to the back of the Seapatrick net.

Similar to many games this season Newry kicked on after the half time break to completely dominate the second period. Straight after the break Niall Crilly took the ball out of defence before finding Mark Patton inside the box. Tightly marked Patton back heeled the ball into the path of Jimmy Walker who was unfortunate to see his shot deflected over the bar. Newry continued to press for the elusive second goal which looked like it would not come due to a combination of some poor final passes, wasteful finishing and a little bit of bad luck especially when Paul Donegan ran from the back post to meet a Walker corner on the penalty spot, his first time volley smacking into the crossbar with the Seapatrick keeper motionless. Pressure eventually told on 80 minutes with a goal made and scored by Man of the Match Walker. Having stifled another Newry attack Seapatrick attempted to walk the ball out of defence. Walker won the ball back and made himself some space before curling his shot from 30 yards out into the far top corner of the Seapatrick net to put Newry 2-0 up. Good as this goal was better was to come. In a one touch passing movement involving half the team beginning with Crilly in his corner back position and ending with Lowry wide on the right wing Newry moved from defence to attack in a matter of moments. Lowry still had much to do to threaten the Seapatrick goal but did so in a flash flicking the ball with the inside of his right foot onto his left which he used to smash a curling shot from 35 yards into the same top corner as Walker hit moments earlier for an early contender for goal of the season.

Newry manager Darren Mullen was happy to have secured maximum points from the game “We must have had 80% possession in this game but when you are only a single goal in the lead there is always the danger of a breakaway. The players were told before the game to be patient and that eventually paid off with three very good goals. That’s now three clean sheets and seven victories in a row and most importantly three league points. But it’s still very early days and we now concentrate on Tuesdays Mid Ulster Cup match against Armagh.”

Don’t forget this match will be on http://www.vadio.ie/newrycityafc at 9pm tonight!!

Newry City AFC: Murphy, Crilly, Edgar, Moan, Donegan, Kearns, McMahon, Walker, Brilly, Patton, Lowry Subs: McMullan, Barr, McCaul, O’Connor, Fay, Curran,

Newry’s next game is on Tuesday 28^th Oct away to Armagh City in the Mid Ulster Cup. Newry then travel on the 1^st November to play Crewe Utd, kick off 2:15pm. Newry City travel club bus will leave the Stone Bridge for this game at 12:45pm.

Name: David O’Connor

Age: 29

Occupation: Financial Advisor

Position: Right Back, Left Back, Centre Mid, Physio table.

Previous Clubs: Warrenpoint Town. Ballybot United.

Honours: Championship 2. Intermediate A a few times, Bass Bowls and a couple of other Mid Ulster cups back in the day. Fr Davies Cup with Ballybot a couple of years ago too.

Footballing Hero: Shaun Goater. Feed the Goat and he will score.

What is the best ground you have played in? Played in a few decent ones with the ‘Point and The Showgrounds is a great pitch, but nothing comes close the home of football, The Barley Field.

Who is the joker of the team? Ian Curran’s good for cutting boys to pieces with his one liners.

Apart from yourself who is the best player on the team? The most consistent is probably Chris McMahon. I played against him a couple of years ago too and rated him then. Jimmy Walker is very good too. With them two and Kenny Kearns, I’ll not be holding out much hope of getting a run in centre mid this year.

Who has the worst dress sense? The dress code is pretty standard with either a suit or tracksuit, but Darren Mullen has a pair of skin-tight black tracksuit bottoms he wears an odd time that give me trouble sleeping at night.

Have you got any pre-match rituals? Take the dog for a walk in the morning to loosen out the legs and then eat a couple of bananas in the hour before kick off.

Who is the best player you have ever played with? I used to enjoy playing right back at the ‘Point with Franco Trainor on the left and John Boyle and Jonny Cowan in the middle. The three boys have been about and fairly keep you right.

If you had a super power what would it be? The ability to score flying scissor kick volleys from 20 yards, Paolo Di Canio style. I keep hitting it a couple of inches too high at the minute.

What are your interests outside of football? Golf. I’ll soon be hanging the boots up and looking to lower the 20 handicap.

Tell us something about yourself not many people know: I’m a closet Michael Bolton fan. Nothing better than belting out a few classics when I’m in the car on my own!

 

*Thanks to Brendan Monaghan Photography for the cover photo.

We are pleased to announce that following the successful streaming of our games last season we will once again be partnering with local media outlet Destination Newry TV to screen this weekends (Saturday 25th) home fixture v Seapatrick FC. The game will be broadcast as live at approximately 9:00 pm on Monday night on Newry City AFC TV which is available via the Roku Box or Destination Newry TV. It will also be available free and on demand any time after the first screening. Match commentators will be Newry Chairman Martin McLoughlin and Player Joe Campbell.