Darren Mullen believes bottom six clashes will 'define' Newry City's season

City were without Daniel Hughes and Philip Donnelly through suspension, whilst John McGovern and Lorcan Forde were injured during Tuesday night’s defeat to Coleraine.

However, Mullen is expected to have three of those four players back at his disposal for the crunch game at the bottom.

"We will hopefully have three out of the four back and we also rested a few with the game tomorrow night in mind,” he said.

"We've had a busy schedule, especially with a three-game week, so we have to manage the squad in the right manner and we've done that to allow everyone to be back for Friday apart from Lorcan Forde.

"The games against the bottom six are those that will define your season.

"We know tomorrow night is a massive game and whilst it might not define our season, it is an important fixture.

"They will look at it as a chance to close the gap on us but we will look at it as an opportunity to extend that gap further.

"We had that in mind in terms of selection against Coleraine and hopefully we will have three or four back available.”

Newry would lose to the Bannsiders courtesy of Matthew Shevlin’s early strike and despite being camped in their own half for the majority of the contest, City would go close to snatching a point as Brian Healy’s half volley fizzed inches over the bar.

Mullen is hopeful that his side can start hitting the back of the net after also losing their last home league fixture to Carrick Rangers.

"We missed one from two or three yards out and a one-on-one situation,” reflected Mullen on the 2-0 defeat to Carrick.

"Those chances are killing us because you simply have to take them.

"When you go 2-0 up in that type of game it just changes everything.

"Carrick had a couple of chances and took them whilst we didn't.

"Hopefully, we are saving our chances for the right time.

"There's nothing we can do about previous games, it's a case of simply looking forward and that’s against Dungannon.”