Gary Boyle challenges Newry City side to show big reaction following opening day defeat to Loughgall

Replacing Darren Mullen after a decade at the Showgrounds helm, new boss Boyle watched on as the hosts conceded three times in a first-half Villagers blitz.

Boyle handed four players their club debuts with Adam Salley, Georgie Poynton, Daragh Owens and Lee Newell all starting while Barney McKeown was also included as he began a second spell with Newry after re-joining from Portadown this summer.

He was also dealt the bitter blow of young gun Donal Scullion being pulled from the team less than 45 minutes before kick-off, but Boyle wasn’t offering any excuses and has challenged his side to react when they travel to Carrick Rangers on Saturday.

"We learned that if you don’t come to the party every week you’re going to get beat,” he said. "We didn’t see it coming.

"We’ve done well in pre-season, we’ve had a lot of positive performance and unfortunately on the biggest day we’ve let ourselves down.

"We want a reaction, to defend better, defend with pride – at the end of the day it’s two set-pieces and a penalty that has beaten us.

"Yes they maybe created more chances but I don’t think they got in behind too many times to create too many chances so it’s something we will address.”

Ciaran O’Connor and Liam Bagnall – two further summer signings – were introduced in the second-half but Boyle rejected the notion that it will take time for the new faces to gel.

"I’m not going to stand here and make excuses about bringing in players because it was my decision,” he added. “I do believe in the recruitment we’ve done.

"We’ve had eight weeks together and that’s why we wanted to get our business done early so that we couldn’t use those excuses.

"It’s a really disappointing day and we’ll work our hardest to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

A bad day at the office was further compounded when Thomas Lockhart was shown a straight red card for kicking out at an opposition player in the dying minutes.

“Tommy’s is deserved – it’s petulant, frustration,” said Boyle. “We’ve talked about it already and it’s put to bed.

"It just compounds a bad day and poor performance that he’s going to miss a few games and the referee got the decision right.”