Bangor boss confident striker duo have what it takes to thrive in Championship

Arthurs was named PIL Player of the Year at the Northern Ireland Football Awards for his role in their success while Neale made a seamless transition from fourth-tier outfit Rathfriland Rangers as the pair formed a potent partnership.

Feeney knows the Championship will bring tougher challenges than they faced on route to glory last term, but feels he has the required firepower in attack to compete with Ben Cushnie also joining on-loan from Glentoran while Jordan Hughes has impressed in pre-season.

"Ben has made a lot of noise by scoring goals, he leads the line well and he's a big physical lad,” he said. “Adam Neale has a great gift.

"He wasn't with us for the first three weeks of pre-season and in his first game back scored two. He has an absolute gift and I think he could play in the Premiership as an impact player - that's how highly I rate him.

"Adam watches Premiership strikers, he looks after himself, he trains every day and I'm really looking forward to him playing in the Championship.

"They are still going to improve. Adam is 29 and he's still looking to improve. He's a late developer and is taking his football very seriously. The two of them will definitely be effective in the league.

"Ben as well and there are others as well that should be pushing. Jordan Hughes has had a decent pre-season and has played in this league before.

"He picked up a bad injury over three years ago and was out for nearly two. We've been getting him fit and sharp again and so far he's looking good. It'll be interesting to see how he gets on."

Bangor have been proactive during the summer in tying down players from their title-winning side to new contracts with Arthurs signing a two-year professional deal while the likes of Neale, Hughes, David Hume, Marc Orbinson, Aaron Harris, Michael Halliday, James Taylor and Dylan O’Kane have also committed.

Feeney feels that was crucial ahead of the club’s first Championship campaign since 2015/16.

"I felt it was important we got key players tied down to show that we're trying to improve and do well,” he added. “We want to compete this season but it's going to take a couple before we're thinking of promotion.

"We really need stability and we really want to do well. You don't want to be losing key players halfway through a season because I think there's a chance some of them are going to go in here and do really well.

"We're all excited for it. We knew it was coming for a long time. We weren't over the line yet last season but we were on course for promotion and during that time I went to watch a lot of Championship games to try and get as much knowledge as I could of it.

"It's going to be tough and there are no easy games. The Championship is going to be competitive with teams taking points off each other.

"I looked at Loughgall last year and they were quality. Defensively they were better than the rest which was our strength last season. That's really important."