Goalkeeper flies in from South Africa to help Knockbreda preserve Championship status

With regular shot-stopper Jonah Nicholl suffering a serious injury in the first-leg of their 4-2 play-off victory over Ballymacash Rangers, 20-year-old Fry made the trip from South Africa to play in the second-leg and kept a clean sheet as Colin McIlwrath’s men survived the drop.

Fry spent less than two days back home in Northern Ireland before returning to continue the charity work he is doing for United Through Sport in the Port Elizabeth area, coaching sports to local kids for the next five weeks, but says he ‘wouldn’t change it for the world’.

"If you told me last week that I would be home for the weekend I wouldn't have believed you!” he said. "Jonah picked up the bad injury on Tuesday night and I got a call later in the evening to see if it would be possible that if there were flights to get me back in time.

"As soon as I was asked there were no doubts and I said I'm coming home for it. It's one of those where the game was massive for our club so I knew I had to do what I could to get back.

"In terms of the decision there were no doubts about it - I knew I wanted to come back. I just had to make sure I could get the time off over here but that was no issue.

"I heard about it on Tuesday, booked the flights on Wednesday, flew home on Thursday so it was a pretty hectic week but I wouldn't change it for the world."

Knockbreda finished bottom of the Championship table and were set for relegation to the Premier Intermediate League, but after Warrenpoint Town were denied a Championship licence for next season, 11th-placed Institute stayed in the second-tier and the Breda Park outfit took their spot in the play-off against Ballymacash.

It’s the second consecutive season in which they’ve maintained their Championship spot by winning a play-off having also defeated Bangor in 2021/22, but Fry says the ambition now is to start working up the league table after a narrow escape.

"The one focus for going home was keeping Knockbreda in the league because it's a club that should be playing Championship football and I wanted to play my part in doing that,” he added. “The boys were buzzing but the club don't want to be in a play-off every year.

"Moving forward the aim is to start moving up the league. You don't want to be in these fights every year because the chances are your luck will run out at some point.

"The whole circumstances with how we stayed up this year, we were fortunate to have the chance of a play-off but once we got the chance we've made the most of it.

"Ballymacash are a big team and on the rise so we knew it would be a tough couple of games but overall we deserved the win."

Fry joined Knockbreda last summer from NAFL Division 1B outfit Bryansburn Rangers and has already made an impact after stepping up, playing 10 times across competitions, including in the Irish Cup against Dungannon Swifts in February.

"I've loved the step up,” he said. “I went in as number two but got to play a few games and am delighted to play my part in staying up.

"We have three strong goalkeepers at the club and all of us have played our part. Daniel (Gates) came in for the first-leg of the play-off on Tuesday night and all credit goes to him because he made a big save at 4-2 to give us a two-goal lead going into the Saturday, which was massive."