Darren Mullen feels 'there has to be a serious review' with Newry City on cusp of 'embarrassing' back-to-back Irish League relegations

The Showgrounds outfit dropped down into the Championship after finishing bottom of Northern Ireland’s top-flight last season and have endured a difficult campaign, winning just seven of their 36 matches to date.

Saturday’s setback combined with nearest rivals Newington beating Ballinamallard United means Mullen’s men are now five points adrift at the bottom with only two games left to play.

Anything less than a victory at Inver Park against Newington next weekend will result in Newry dropping into the Premier Intermediate League and Mullen admits their freefall down the Irish League pyramid is unacceptable.

"It's poor and it's embarrassing - it's not what I've been used to,” Mullen told the club’s media channel. “I didn't come back for this, and I'm not blaming anybody else...I'm the manager.

"It shouldn't be happening for a club coming down from the Premiership to now be five points off the bottom of the Championship, it's not acceptable.

"By no means am I criticising anybody else, this is on me as manager, but there has to be a serious review.

"There are still two games left to go and all we can do is focus on next Saturday.

"We knew we had three games to win to stay in the league and if we can't do it we haven't been good enough, there's no excuses. We've had long enough to get ourselves out of it and haven't."

Club legend Mullen, who played a key role in Newry’s reformation and led them to Premiership promotion on two occasions, returned to the dugout following Barry Gray’s departure in October.

Consecutive victories over Newington and Institute could still be enough to preserve second-tier status, but Mullen is aware of the precarious position Newry find themselves in.

"I can only apologise to the fans, that's not what anybody expected coming to watch a game of this magnitude,” he added after their weekend defeat. “We haven't been good enough and as manager I will take full responsibility for it.

"There's a serious review needed.

"The season isn't over...we still have two games left but have just left it very difficult. We haven't been good enough.

"It doesn't come down to one game or a poor refereeing decision, we only have ourselves to blame. I've had long enough to fix it and haven't.

"We can only apologise and we need to pick ourselves up and give it a rattle next Saturday.

"Character and pride have to come into it, you're playing for the jersey.

"If you don't want to play next Saturday just tell me and there's no point coming back. You don't know what can happen. It's very difficult and we haven't helped ourselves.”