Barry Gray looking to build on positives of first Premiership point as Newry City manager in crucial clash with Loughgall

Friday night’s draw with Jim Ervin’s men, who remain six points ahead of Gray’s side in 11th spot in the race for top-flight safety, ended a run of six consecutive league defeats and was just a third home point from 14 matches this campaign.

Adam Salley’s second-half header – his seventh league goal of the season – secured a crucial point and tonight’s trip to Loughgall, who would move into the top-half with at least a draw, acts as Newry’s game in hand on the Sky Blues and they’ll be bidding to pile the pressure on their fellow relegation contenders.

"We go again Tuesday night and we will take the positives,” Gray told the club’s media channel. “You've heard me talking about confidence within the group from the start to where we are now...it's not as high as we would like, but when you have so many defeats and you need so many wins, the middle gap there is performances being stronger and picking up points.

"We picked up a point against Ballymena and we can't shy away from that. People will run the point down because it was against Ballymena...if it had have been Linfield here then people would have said it's a great point - a point is a point regardless of who you take it off.

"We need to focus on the positives of the game, where the players are and be realistic with them in terms of where we've come from and still need to go, which is the important thing.

"We need to concentrate on what we can build on for Tuesday night, which is our game in hand and if we win on Tuesday we come away with four points in a few days and the gap closes to three points.

"If somebody had told us that two weeks ago, you would have taken their arm off for it. That's still in our gift and our own hands to try and go and do that. That's all that matters."

Gray also believes that competitive matches are the most important aspect to helping his Newry side make improvements.

"Like I said to the players inside, we've inherited a group that is far from where they'd like to be and as far away from the level of fitness I'd like them to be to play the style of play we need here,” he added. “We can't change any of that - that's just where we are.

"What we do need to change will take a wee while and it'll take games. We can get on the training pitch and do 50 sessions a week, but game time and competitive scenarios is where we will learn the most and build match fitness, sharpness and cohesion.

"Our job now is to get in training again and focus on Tuesday night, which is a game in hand and a game we believe we can win."