Barry Gray credits Newry City's players for ending 'long week' with Irish Cup progression as ex-Cliftonville and Warrenpoint Town boss starts reign on winning note

Gray’s reign could barely have started in better fashion as Ciaran O’Connor put the hosts ahead with only five minutes on the clock and Adam Salley doubled that lead 15 minutes later with his 10th of the season.

However, Newry didn’t have it all their own way as ex-Cliftonville midfielder Aaron Harkin pulled one back before half-time and Alex Holder evened the tie four minutes after the break.

O’Connor’s second eased Newry nerves and ultimately sent them into the sixth round where they’ll travel to another second-tier outfit in Newington.

The club’s last home win came with a 2-0 Mid-Ulster Cup triumph over Premier Intermediate League outfit Rathfriland Rangers in early-September and before that was their 4-1 Premiership victory against Carrick Rangers, just over 13 months ago.

Victory also ended a winless run of 10 matches in all competitions ahead of their weekend Premiership clash with high-flying Cliftonville – one of Gray’s former clubs.

"We stepped out today wanting one thing and one thing only - a win and a home win at that,” Gray told the club’s media channel. “We had lots of other things on the wish list that we didn't get, but we started the game very well as you would expect us to.

"We conceded a sloppy goal from a mistake - Barney (McKeown) made a mistake and we spoke about it inside that mistakes happen. Unfortunately they punished us for it and that took the gleam off the first-half.

"Second-half we started sloppy as hell and they punished us again, but I said to the players that the key thing is we won the game. It would have been easy at that point to roll over and you did see the heads dip for a wee patch.

"When you have a team in the form and recent results we've had it's only natural to think 'where is this going to go?'. We built back into the game and it turned into a scrappy one in the second-half.

"It's not perfect, but it's positive. It's a first home win in quite some time and it's credit to the players. It has been a long week for them with a lot of change and there will continue to be more change.

"They looked like a team that wanted to go out and win the game for the club, which we did. We know we'll have tougher opposition where we will have to be miles better than we were today, but for the first step we've done well and got the win which was our priority."