Wray excited with move to England

The defender, who moves to Ipswich later this week to start work as a mechanical design engineer, was made captain at Taylor’s Avenue at the weekend and he was disappointed with the result.

“Obviously I was gutted we lost the game, but to be honest prior to the team-talk Keeso (Paul Kee), Aggie (Allan Blair) and the rest of the squad presented me with a signed jersey and card then just before kick-off Ruairi (McClean) gave me the captain’s armband for the day, which was also another nice touch,” he said.

“The committee also gave me a card and wished me all the best and I have to admit it was a bit emotional.”

The Waterside man will be continuing to keep a close eye on how his old team-mates are doing and he remains confident that they can move away from the relegation zone.

“I totally believe that they can stay up, especially now that Keeso is back involved with the club, he’ll be able to attract quality players and I know he along with Aggie and Kyle (Wallace) will give their all.

“There is enough good players in the dressing room but they just need to start believing in themselves and as I have already said I’m confident that they can avoid relegation.”

The one time Leeds United starlet has a lot of fond memories of the Drumahoe club, which he calls his ‘club’.

“Although ‘Stute have had two tough seasons I have a lot of good memories from my home town club, in fact I would like to thank everyone from the supporters to the players, coaching staff, committee and especially this season Kyle Wallace.

“Kyle did a lot of work with me behind the scenes whenever I was out with my groin injury.”

Wray, also declared that after talking things through with his girlfriend Emily Joughin, a move to Ipswich was always on the cards, however things certainly move a lot quicker than what he expected.

“To be honest Emily is living in Ipswich and she has a really good nursing job there, so it made sense for me to move across,” he added.

“However things started to move very quickly as I didn’t expect to get the job in London, but after the interview the owner of the business offered me the job and I couldn’t turn it down.

“Although I’m excited about making the move I also have to admit that I’m a little bit nervous, which is probably to be expected.”

Even though the Newbuildings man is moving across the Irish Sea he isn’t going to hang up his boots just yet, in fact his new boss has already sorted him with a new club.

“Just like the job I was surprised that I got a club so quickly, I always wanted to continue playing football whenever I went over to Ipswich, but I thought it would take me a few weeks just to find my feet, but my boss is the chairman of Brantham Athletic and he asked me would I want to sign for them, so that’s great.

“In fact they wanted me to start training tomorrow (Thursday) night, but I had to turn them down as I have a lot of moving to do, but maybe I’ll get to their game on Saturday.”