‘There are a lot of points to be played for’ says Newry City coach Gavin Dykes

Time may be running out for Newry City to preserve their Premiership status, but coach Gavin Dykes believes they can still turn things around with four games to go.

Last weekend couldn’t have gone any worse for City, as they lost 3-2 away to Glenavon, whilst Ballymena United defeated Loughgall to open the gap in the relegation battle to five points.

Thus, Saturday’s clash against Dungannon Swifts has the feel of a ‘must win’ game, but Dykes holds belief that the fight isn’t over yet.

"Of course it can (be turned around),” he said.

“We have to play Ballymena, we have three other games as well.

"There are a lot of points to be played for. There'll be swings and roundabouts in it.

"We can't control what Ballymena or any other team do. We can only control what we do.

"If we put in the same effort (as we did against Glenavon) and get a bit more justice with decisions, we can turn it around.

"The players are devastated because they wanted to get a result for Barry [Gray] but it wasn't to be."

Newry are yet to win a home game all season, but it is now or never, if they are to stay up.

Dungannon sit 18 points ahead of Newry and steamrolled them 5-0 in their last meeting, but Dykes is hopeful that Newry can build on the work ethic they showed last week, and grab a priceless result.

“There's no easy games in this league,” he said.

“We're bottom of this league for a reason. We're not expecting miracles.

“If we put in the endeavour and yes we've put in a shift today in fairness to them all, including the subs who came on, hopefully we can go and build on it.