Newry City hoping to preserve winning run at Taylor's Avenue against Carrick Rangers

Time is running out for Newry City, who have just eight games left to preserve their Sports Direct Premiership status.

The final five games of the season will take place in the end-of-season split, where City will play against fellow bottom six sides, and the importance of those games can’t be overstated.

However, if they want to put some points on the board and reduce the five-point gap between themselves and second from bottom Ballymena United, today’s fixture against Carrick Rangers figures to be their best chance to do so, with Linfield and Crusaders around the corner.

Of course, the odds will be stacked against Newry, who sit five places and 21 points behind Stuart King’s side, but Taylor’s Avenue has been a happy hunting ground for them in recent times.

City have won each of the last two league fixtures played between the sides at the venue – winning both on a score-line of 2-0 – as well as overcoming Carrick Rangers in a penalty shootout in the Bet McLean League Cup in November.

In April 2023, two goals from James Teelan – who now plays for Carrick Rangers on loan – did the damage and helped to keep Newry in the top flight last season. Then, former manager Gary Boyle picked up his first win in charge of the club in August, with Lorcan Forde and Daragh Owens getting on the scoresheet.

Newry will be hopeful of similar fortunes today, and they desperately need to put an end to a winless run which has stretched to 19 league games.

If they are to do so however, they will have to do it without their manager Barry Gray in the dug-out. He’s serving the first of a two-game ban, for comments made which were critical of referee Evan Boyce’s performance in Newry’s defeat against Cliftonville in January.

As a result, it figures that his assistant Dermot McVeigh will be on the line today. But crucially for Newry, they will have their manager available for the final six games of the campaign.