Young player leaves club

The linchpin of Gerard McMahon’s reserve side has recently got a new job in Galway and therefore has upped sticks and moved to the West of Ireland city. The move meant that Doherty had to leave Mourneview Park and, as his Reserve team gaffer said, it’s a huge loss to the club ahead of the coming campaign:

“It’s unfortunate that he’s gone and Marty was keen to have a look at him too but he didn’t have a job so you can’t blame him for going. It was too good an opportunity to turn down. It’s only for a year though so if things don’t work out he can still come back. He said he’s going to see how it goes and then see if he’s coming back and if he does we’ll take him back like a shot.

“I think it’s going to be harder for us this year. The team’s slightly younger and losing Ciaran is a big blow for us. We started last year with a squad of about 30 players and this year it’s about 18 or 19 but hopefully we’ll be able to keep them all keen. It’s probably a stronger squad this year all in all and hopefully a lot more will get first-team opportunities with Marty having a smaller squad as well.”

However, McMahon has added four new players to his panel this summer, among them Lurgan Celtic’s Stephen McArdle. The 25 year-old can play either up front or in midfield and McMahon is glad to have added him, along with others including a former Manchester United trialist in Niall Devlin, to his panel.

“We’ve signed Stephen McArdle from Lurgan Celtic and he’s a good, intelligent centre forward. Niall Devlin, a young forward, has also come in from Craigavon City and we’ve also signed a good centre-back who is a real presence at the back,” he said.

McMahon’s men have already beaten Devlin’s former club and drew with McArdle’s in pre-season whilst also handing out a 5-0 drubbing to Seapatrick. Key to those successes have been the series of up and coming young players in McMahon’s side, plenty of whom the gaffer expects to make the step up to Marty Quinn’s first team.

“There are a load of boys coming up from the youth team and we’ve got the likes of Aaron Marks, Francis Brennan, Chris Lavery, Michael McKee and Cameron Grieve all coming through,” he said.

“Michael McKee is a big, strong lad and has everything you need to be a centre forward. He’s still able to play for the youth team so everything’s going for him. He maybe needs to work on his goal-scoring and positional sense but a wee bit of tweaking here and there and that’ll be him. Once he gets into the first team, hopefully he’ll stay there. I know that Marty likes the look of him as well as Joe Finlay and Chris Lavery, two of our other strikers.

“Cameron Grieve has got a very good chance of making it in the first team. He played against Carrick for the first team a few weeks ago and did very well. Ryan Murphy has also been brilliant for me all of last season and has looked really sharp at the start of this year.”

The youngsters’ next chance to impress will be at Rathfriland on Saturday before they return to Mourneview Park to take on a Sunderland Select side made up of their Academy players next Wednesday, August 4, (kick-off 7pm). Admission for that game is 3 for adults and 1 concession.