Darren Mullen admits Newry City are still a “working progress” but believes they’ve enough to drag themselves away from Championship relegation trouble despite losing 3-1 against Ballyclare Comrades on Saturday.

Darius Roohi’s brace and a second half Liam Hassin strike condemned Newry to a seventh league defeat from 13 matches this term, leaving them sitting in 11th – just three points ahead of bottom side Newington, who lost 1-0 to Institute this weekend.

Club legend Mullen was reappointed as manager earlier this month following Barry Gray’s departure and has since overseen league defeats to ‘Stute and Ballyclare alongside defeating Newington 3-1 last Saturday.

Having been down this road before, Mullen is well aware of what’s required to turn Newry’s fortunes around and has belief they’ve the quality to do it.

placeholder image — Newry City manager Darren Mullen. (Photo by INPHO/Declan Roughan)

"There's still a lot to fix,” he told the club’s media channel. “I'm not coming out with a glum face - I'm not happy and never like getting beat, but this is a working progress.

"That's a changing room that does have character. To be honest, when I was on the outside looking in, you do question it and I'm sure other people are, but I'm in the changing room, I know there's character and I know we'll get out of this."

Newry’s task doesn’t get much easier with a home clash against second-placed H&W Welders, but they’ll hope to make the most of their upcoming schedule which sees four of their next five league games staged at the Showgrounds.

This is Mullen’s fourth season in Northern Ireland’s second-tier, twice gaining Premiership promotion during his first stint with Newry, so knows just how competitive the league is with only 10 points currently separating second and 11th.

He has sent a defiant message to the club’s supporters that his squad are up for the battle to stay in the Championship and even if it takes time, remains confident they’ll find their best form.

“There's a lot of things that we can take out of today that we can fix but what I will say to the fans is if they've any doubt about what the changing room is like, we're up for this,” he added. “We know we're in a fight here.

"This is a very difficult league. Last weekend was great, winning 3-1 and you go into the club after...it's not going to be like that every time. We know it's going to be a long road.

"The rest of this season, and why I was brought in, is about stability, getting us back on a solid footing and lifting the atmosphere. To be fair to the lads, the atmosphere has been good in training.

"We know it's not good enough and as manager I take full responsibility for the defeat. We know the job in hand and we will get there. It might take a bit of time but we know what's needed and we've been here before.

"It's going to be painful and there will be painful enough days, but we'll fix it."