Irish League boss feels Championship has improved immensely in recent years and unpredictability makes it 'more interesting' than Premiership

The County Armagh outfit have started 2024 by putting together an unbeaten league run of seven matches – they’ll hope to make that eight on Saturday afternoon against Ballyclare Comrades – which is a hugely impressive feat considering the historical competitiveness.

Bangor went 10 games without a loss between mid-November and February which propelled them into title contention, but it’s notoriously difficult to produce that sort of form – for example, Institute have recorded eight unbeaten this season, Portadown peaked at six and leaders Dundela’s best is five.

When taking a look at the top-flight, Premiership leaders Larne, who have lost just once, are enjoying a remarkable unbeaten run of 21 league matches while Cliftonville’s was halted at 14 by Linfield last month. The Blues have put together two different streaks of eight.

With more quality players plying their trade in the Championship, including the arrivals of Danny Lafferty (Institute) and Ruaidhri Donnelly (Newington) in January, McGurgan feels it has helped take an exciting league to another level.

"Especially over the last two years it has (drastically improved),” he said. “You see some of the signings being made and it's just getting stronger and stronger.

"Bangor signed Conor McDermott and Tiarnan Mulvenna, Newington have brought in Ruaidhri Donnelly, some of the signings Portadown have made, Institute...you look right through and there's probably players in every single Championship team that could step up to the Premiership.

"It's absolutely brilliant and that's what we want - more quality, better attendances, better games, more competitive and that's why the Championship is probably a lot more interesting than the Premiership.

"The Premiership is a three-horse race...Cliftonville have down an unbelievable job as a part-time team to challenge. A lot of the matches are foregone conclusions before they're played whereas regardless of who the top team in the Championship is going to play it's no certainty they're going to win."

Annagh have been involved in the last two Premiership promotion play-off matches, losing out to Portadown and Dungannon Swifts, and could yet challenge at the top end once again if they’re able to maintain winning form.

They currently sit fifth, 10 points behind Dundela and five adrift of second-placed Bangor ahead of this weekend’s action, and although McGurgan believes they may have left it too late, the BMG Arena outfit will keep fighting.

"The target for us is just to finish as strong as we can,” he added. “I think we've left it far too late to put down any sort of challenge at the top, but from our point of view, if we can learn from what has happened and finish strong there's a lot to build on for next year.

"We've a lot of players re-signed for next season so we've a really good core and it's a matter of adding in a few during the summer. It gives us consistency in terms of personnel because it's hard when you're having to do a full rebuild during the summer.

"If we can manage to pull together seven or nine points out of the next three games then maybe it's all still to play for, but I still think we've left it too late because the teams above us are strong."