EXCLUSIVE: 'We don't intend to stay long in the Championship' Newry City boss Darren Mullen on year ahead
'The club is set up for Premiership football'
Newry City boss Darren Mullen has vowed to steer the club straight back to the Premiership.
The County Down side were relegated after just one season back in the top-flight.
Mullen says it was a learning curve – and he is hoping the “many positives” from the 2018-19 season will help them secure automatic promotion from the Championship.
In an exclusive interview with Downtown & Cool FM, the man who helped lead the club to a remarkable four promotions in five seasons, says he doesn’t plan to extend his stay in the second tier.
“No disrespect to the Championship because it is a terrific league and we were delighted to get into that level but once you’re at the top league you do want to get back into it – the club is set up for premiership football,” he told us.
“We didn’t let ourselves get down – we picked ourselves up pretty quickly so we will be good to go once the season starts.
“We made a lot of friends last year and it was a great experience for us all – and for me as a manager – I learned a lot about myself in it so yes we want to get back at it
“The good thing about the club is that everybody is ready for the challenge again.
“We have to be challenging to go back up – there’s no point saying anything different.”
Mullen does admit that there will be pressure as favourites to return to the Premiership.
And he acknowledges that it won’t be easy.
“We have to be ready for it,” he said.
“Going back to last season – I think that the experiences of playing at that higher level and the lads having that extra year will hopefully stand by them.
“We want to go back up and speaking to the players coming in our ambition is to go straight back up.
“There’s an argument to say did we get there too soon – I don’t agree with that – things happen the way they’re supposed to.
“But we are hoping we can get back pretty quick.”
To this end, Mullen has strengthened his squad which he now reckons is already better than last year’s.
These include ex Glenavon and Portadown striker, Adam Foley (above) who put pen to paper in the last 24 hours, Stevie Moan and Stephen McCavitt (below), on loan last year with Banbridge from Glenavon.
The 22-year-old striker had a terrific spell in the Premier Intermediate League - finishing as top goalscorer and making the team of the year.
John Grant completes the main signings.
Mullen said: “The signings we brought in had to be equal or better than we had already.
“That was something we learned from last year with the recruitment end of it.
“We brought in Stevie Moan initially from Warrenpoint – he was the captain there and he has won this divison.
“John Grant was at the club when he was younger he went to Norwich on a trial and then he played against us for Camlough for a few years and caused us serious amount of problems,.
“He went to Australia for three of four years and then contacted me to say he was coming back so delighted to get him in.
“Young Stephen McCavitt – I spoke to Gary Hamilton about him and we got him on loan for a year – he was somebody on our radar for a while and did extremely well with Banbridge last year – finishing as top scorers in the Premier Intermediate League so excited to see him in.”
Newry City are wasting no time in preparing well for their Championship year.
Mullen still has a few more players to bring in while friendly pre-season games have already been organised.