Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
MAXIE SWAIN ta
LAST Friday night marked exactly 100 years to the day since Andrew Coleman made his debut for Newry.
Not the man presently in possession of the club’s No 12 jersey you’ll understand, despite the experienced stopper’s status as an elder statesman of the squad at 33, but rather his great-grandfather and namesake who was a founding member of the border club.
Although back then, there was no border of course. The guns of the Great War had yet to fall silent and Ireland was still under British rule when Newry Town, as they were originally known, formed as an amateur side in the autumn of 1918 and took their place in the Newry & District League.
It was a poignant centenary, even if Darren Mullen’s current crop were to go down 3-0 to the reigning champions Crusaders, illustrating as it did a century of determined if troubled survival and throwing into sharp focus the achievements of Mullen and co in raising the club from the ashes of their chastening demise in 2012.
These days most players claim to love their club, but for some the connection really does run deep into the very fabric of who they are, meaning so much more than merely paying lip service in the media or blithely kissing the badge.
Talking to Coleman, it’s abundantly clear he’s one of that breed.
For him, it is “in the blood”, quite literally, with his passion for Newry having been passed down the generations, all the way from his pioneering forefather.
“My great-granda led them out that day, he played in their first ever competitive game, he was Andy Coleman as well, and his brother Thomas also played in that team, so it’s in my blood,” explained Coleman.
“It’s something my dad is very proud of and he’s always talking about it, so
I had no other choice than to be a Newry man.”
In deciding to switch from Dungannon, just crowned League Cup champions a few months earlier, to the Premiership’s new boys, Coleman knew that in all likelihood a relegation dogfight was on the cards.
But he says the challenge of helping his boyhood club establish themselves in the top flight, and the prospect of possibly winning silverware with them, tugged strongly on his heart-strings.
“My dad took me down when I was a kid and my cousins sit in the stand now and watch so it would mean everything to lift a trophy with Newry, but we just need to stay up this year first,” he said.
“But if I could win something with Newry, it would be unbelievable, it would be one of the best moments of my life.
“This reminds me of when I first went to Glenavon, we weren’t too good, and when I first went to Dungannon we weren’t too good either, and when I was leaving both of those clubs, we were winning trophies and getting to the latter stages of the cup competitions and finishing comfortably in mid-table so if I could do that with Newry, it would be fantastic.” Coleman admits the Newry he returned to over the summer is unrecognisable from the crisis-hit club he departed some seven years ago.
He moved to Glenavon the season before they were dissolved in 2012 following an unseemly financial dispute with former manager Gerry Flynn, but the storm clouds had long since been gathering.
“It’s unbelievable, it’s night and day, when I was there before and you looked up to the stands, there was maybe 40 people there. It was shocking and this probably sounds weird but it was the best thing that ever happened to Newry,” said Coleman.
“They’ve went down the divisions but they are doing things right now, they’ve came back up and pulled in massive crowds, there’s thousands coming to some of those Friday night games so it’s brilliant. Results could be better but I think everyone is buying into that we are all local lads, we’re all from the town and you have to commend them because things haven’t been going our way the last couple of months but they are still coming out in numbers.”
In between his last spell at his hometown team, Coleman earned his Irish League stripes as it were at Glenavon and then latterly at Dungannon.
He was injured for the Swifts’ League Cup triumph last February, having played in all the games in the lead-up to the final, but was overjoyed for the club and for Stuart Addis who came in for the decider at Windsor.
“I feel I played my part at Glenavon and Dungannon in their transition from teams who were struggling to teams that won cups and finished comfortably in mid-table,” explained Coleman.
“And last year, lifting the League Cup, although I was injured and couldn’t play that day, to see the faces of the people at Dungannon after winning that trophy will live with me for ever.
“The people at that club are unbelievable, they took me under their wing from day one and looked after me.
“That day at Windsor Park I’ll never forget it, I played the whole way up to it but it wasn’t to be, I had to hold my hands up and say I wasn’t fit to play.
“But Stuarty (circled above) came in and he was fantastic, and I was proud for him too, me and him get on the best. He sat on the bench and watched me play for four years so that was his turn and his time to shine and he was brilliant.”
After a fairly encouraging start to life back among the big boys, particularly at home where they lost just once in their first seven in all competitions at
The Showgrounds, it’s been fairly demoralising of late, with Friday night’s reverse at home to the Hatchetmen coming hot on the heels of a bleak October where they lost six on the bounce.
“It’s been tough, there’s no getting away from that,” said Coleman,
“it’s been a really tough couple of months.
“Personally, I’ve been in this