Former Linfield star relishing taking on 'certainly the best' Irish League manager in cup showdown
Newry City manager – and former Linfield star – Stuart King is relishing another opportunity to come up against “certainly the best” Irish League manager David Healy.
After progressing past top-flight opposition in Portadown and Glenavon, third-tier Newry’s BetMcLean Cup quarter-final reward is Tuesday’s visit of the reigning Premiership champions.
During his time in charge of Carrick Rangers, King regularly came up against the Blues – a club where he enjoyed a successful spell as a player, winning two league titles alongside celebrating cup glory.
He got the better of Linfield on one occasion in the Premiership, picking up a 2-1 triumph at Taylors Avenue in August 2022.
Just like during his career on the pitch, King relishes facing the best in the dugout and believes Healy, who has won six Gibson Cup crowns across his decade-long tenure at Windsor Park, is amongst Northern Ireland’s elite.
"It’s a brilliant occasion for the football club, for everybody who works behind the scenes, for every volunteer,” he told the club’s media channel. “It’s for them.
"We’ve beaten two Premiership teams which is phenomenal for a third-tier team and we have got a really good reward out of it. I want everybody to enjoy it.
"I want my lads to enjoy it. We’re really short on numbers, we’re carrying so many injuries, we’d six or seven (on Friday night) and there’s four or five defenders not available.
"I want them to go out to express themselves and enjoy it. I’m sure if Linfield are watching that, which I know they were, they won’t be fearing too much with the way we defended tonight, but we’ll give it a go.
"I like putting myself up against the best managers in the country and he’s certainly the best...I’m really looking forward to it.”
Newry prepared for Tuesday’s showdown with a dramatic 4-3 Premier Intermediate League triumph over Dollingstown at The Showgrounds.
Georgie Poynton’s late penalty secured three points for King’s men, who had Lee Newell sent off in the closing stages, as they extended their winning league run to three matches.
"It’s a brilliant result for us,” he added. “I thought we started off really well and were on the front foot, we dominated for the first 30 minutes and scored two goals.
"Then we’ve switched off and gave away two terrible goals again. I’m coming in at half-time not happy at all because I genuinely didn’t think our play deserved that.
"I knew we’d create opportunities and we could score goals, but then we gave another terrible goal away and you’re thinking the worst again.
"The mentality of my lads is not to lose games, they keep driving on, the crowd gets right behind us and it was phenomenal. It’s a brilliant result.
"Dollingstown were above us coming into tonight and we talked about that all week. It has been a steady start, but that’s a brilliant result for us.”