Newry City boss Darren Mullen spoke to us after his side lost 2-1 against Loughgall in the Mid Ulster Cup Semi-final last night.
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00:00Darren, obviously not the result you would have wanted, but do you feel a sense of pride
00:04after the way your team performed tonight?
00:06Absolutely. Look, we knew we had nine first team players out tonight. It was an opportunity
00:11for some young lads to come in that I hadn't seen enough of and they most definitely took
00:17their chance. I thought they were excellent. I was so proud of them. It's what we need.
00:21It's what this club was built on in terms of bringing good young local lads through
00:26The lads that played tonight stood up really well to what was a primary team. They didn't
00:33mix it up. They didn't treat it lightly. I thought we were well worth our lead and then
00:38played really well. Should have made it 2-0. Then just at the end, I suppose we were pushed
00:42back. When you're under that pressure and they're putting balls in the box, anything
00:47can happen. But overall, yes, the object of the game, I looked at it to see could we blood
00:52young players in and try and test a few players and there were definitely three or four in
00:56that there that came out shining colours.
00:58You touched on it there. Lockall obviously played a strong team. Their premiership side
01:01probably would have been fair had they gone out there tonight and taken a heavy defeat
01:06but there's no notion of that. They've fully applied themselves and they're even with Lockall
01:10the whole way through just until that late goal.
01:13To be honest, there's a fear when you have that many young lads in. I think we had eight
01:19or nine under 20. When you have that amount of players in at the one time, ideally you'd
01:23like the blood lads in as part of the team but throwing them into the mix. I suppose
01:30you have to do that in the nature of where we're in. But they certainly stood up to it.
01:35Matched them in every department. Played really well. We were brave, physical when they needed
01:40to be. They stood up to the physical challenge as well because Lockall are a physical team.
01:45So loads of positives. Obviously disappointed. You're always disappointed when you get beaten.
01:50But in terms of a learning experience for those lads, that's way better than any coaching
01:54session.
01:55Absolutely. You've touched on that again. It's sort of that broken record, isn't it?
01:58The players who are out missing. Do you feel any of the boys who maybe are close to getting
02:02back in in the next couple of games?
02:04Might be one possibly for the weekend but not all. Maybe all come back at the same time.
02:10From tonight at least they know now that their lads are well fit to come in. I have no fear
02:13of putting some of those lads in should we need them on Sunday in Bangor. That's the
02:17good thing about it. It's obviously disappointing to get beat but going away from it with lots
02:25of positives. I'm sure the fans that are coming tonight... I'm hoping the fans can see that
02:30this has been turning. Even in terms of the atmosphere and the performance. There's a
02:34good bunch of lads. There's a good group in there. Tonight wasn't the result that we wanted
02:39but with the amount of players that are out there's loads of positives to take. Once we
02:42get everybody back I think it will be a force to be reckoned with.
02:46Has it nearly become a positive thing in the sense that, as you mentioned, when you are
02:49getting senior players back a couple of those younger players won't want to give up their
02:51place in the team?
02:52Yes. I say to the lads in the changing rooms, the lads that are out, it won't matter to
02:58me who you are, how many games you've played or where you've come from. If someone comes
03:02in and does really well they'll take their place. Hopefully that puts a wee bit of pressure
03:06on lads that they're not getting complacent. When you're not playing you're not going to
03:10get complacent but at least we can show tonight we have lads who are fit to step in. I don't
03:15think that will be the last you'll see of those lads playing in first team jersey.