'What a player - what a signing' - Paul Hamilton hails January recruit Ruaidhri Donnelly after debut brace inspires Irish Cup upset

​Former Swansea City and Gillingham attacker Donnelly only joined the north Belfast club on loan from Glentoran on Thursday, but wasted no time in proving his quality by netting twice as Newington fought back from 1-0 down to set-up a quarter-final against Larne.

The 31-year-old had made just one Premiership start this season at The Oval before dropping down to the second-tier for more playing opportunities and Hamilton hopes he can fall back in love with football once again.

"What a player - what a signing,” he told BBC Sportsound. "Local boy playing for his local team, falling in love again with football hopefully.

"He gets the goals but he worked his socks off today and so did everyone else, subs included.

"Ruaidhri was very, very good today.

"It was a good performance from the boys from start to finish - they took the game to Newry.

"We weren't coming down to make up numbers, we were coming down to get into the next round and we achieved that.

"We'd two great opportunities before they scored and then (at 1-0) we shrugged our shoulders back a bit and stuck our chest out and took it to them.

"When we levelled and then got the second there was only one winner here today...we were hungry, we wanted it more and it showed.

"It's a good challenge for the boys to come up against Larne."