The New Year’s Day clash at Milltown between Warrenpoint Town and Armagh City naturally saw much of the attention placed on the hosts.
After all, reports had broken less than 24 hours earlier that ‘Point chief Barry Gray was about to swap one side of the Mourne Ultimatum for the other and take the vacant post at Newry City following Gary Boyle’s resignation.
That proved true. The Premier Intermediate League match finished as a 2-2 draw, Warrenpoint confirmed Gray’s departure merely hours later and, the following day, Premiership basement dwellers Newry unveiled the 43-year-old as their new boss.
The move came as a surprise given that Gray had spent a decade and a half across two spells in charge of Warrenpoint – he’d spent a little over four years at the helm in his second stint – but he will now be stood on the touchline at The Showgrounds hopeful of helping City stave off the drop in their second successive top-flight crusade since achieving promotion in 2022.
For one club in the Mourne region, they will aim to achieve an immediate return to the Championship following an administrative relegation in 2023 under a yet-to-be-confirmed new supremo.
A win in Gray’s final match in charge would have seen the ‘Point move top of the table, but with the honours even, it means they sit a point off first-place; a position currently occupied by ambitious Limavady United.
With Limavady, Queen’s University and Ballymacash Rangers in a three-way tie on 22 points each, the margins are fine in the PIL and Warrenpoint, who have won six of their 10 fixtures thus far, have learned that.
Gray’s successor knows they will be stepping into a job where the immediate expectations are high – the intention is to return to senior football as quickly as possible.
The intermediate sphere is hard to escape and there is a plethora of parties interested in that objective.
Armagh City, who remain just a point worse off than Warrenpoint having achieved 20 of them in 13 outings, are one such that are arguably flying under the radar.
Perched in fifth-place, the men from the Cathedral City may have had a slightly underwhelming 2022/23 campaign, but they are starting to revert to type now.
Under Shea Campbell’s tutelage, they picked up just 28 points all season last time out and ended in ninth having missed out on the promotion play-off on the final day of 2021/22.
But with the third-tier having expanded from 12 to 14 sides, they are back on the right track and maintain hope – albeit with the caveat, perhaps, of having played more matches to date than all of the four teams above them – of bringing Championship football back to Holm Park for the first time since 2017.
Having rescued a draw in the 90th minute on New Year’s Day, the Eagles have also recorded a stalemate with Ballymacash and lost by the odd goal to Limavady (2-1) and Queen’s (3-2), proving that they can mix it with the big guns of the division having been inspired by the impressive goalscoring form of 20-year-old Matthew Butler, their top scorer on seven.
Also the PIL’s top drawers with five level peggings, should Armagh convert some of those into wins in the second half of the season, don’t sleep on them going on a promotion run.
Featured image from David Kerr/NI Football League Media.
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