Warrenpoint Town won't read anything into being title favourites, says Barry Gray as Milltown side start league campaign with a 3-0 victory against Moyola Park

The border club are seen as the team to beat in the Premier Intermediate after losing a licence appeal that saw them potentially two games away from Premiership football, to then being demoted to the third tier.

However, despite playing down the favourites tag, Gray is hoping that experienced heads such as Steven Ball, Fra McCaffrey and John Boyle remaining at the club will give them an added edge over the competition.

He said: "Everyone will say we're the favourites based on the team or squad we had last season or the year before.

"That's not the team we have now as we only retained six players.

"The rest are largely young or unproven players at senior level.

"If you want to give us that title, it's fine, we'll believe it when we've 26 games played and the tally on the league table tells us we are the favourites.

"A lot of the guys in the changing room are too young to read into that.

"I hope that some of our senior quality that we retained from last season will be the difference in the neck and neck games.”

Warrenpoint started their Premier Intermediate season with a 3-0 win against Moyola Park as Gray’s troops netted three times in quick succession before the break.

A delightful free-kick by Ball got things going before Jamie O’Flaherty and Jim O’Hanlon also found the back of the net at the Coleraine Showgrounds.

"It was a bit rusty but every team is on the first game of the season,” Gray added.

"We are happy with the win, with the scoreline and that's all that matters.

"It's the old cliche that goals change games and it certainly changed it for us.

"It was perfect timing and if you planned it, that would have been the perfect time to do it.

"To be fair, we knew coming out in the second-half that we had to manage it out and we did that okay."