MARK HOPES TO TURN GREY SKYS TO BLUE

Former Coventry teen is up for his new challenge

MARK MAGENNIS says he’s both fascinated and fired up by the challenge which awaits him at embattled Dunmurry Rec.

The former Coventry City apprentice is taking his first steps into management at the West Belfast club after he was appointed to the Ashley Park hot seat last Tuesday night.

He admits he’s intrigued by the job he has taken on, but insists that he goes into it wise to the problems he is inheriting and with his eyes wide open to the battle for survival which lies ahead.

With just two wins at the midway point of their league campaign, and five points adrift of safety, Dunmurry Rec are on course for relegation.

Magennis is confident he can help them change that course in the short term, but he’s also realistic about their prospects and is looking at the bigger picture.

And he reckons if the club must take their medicine and suffer another drop in order to regroup, then so be it.

“It’s a win-win situation for me. If we go down, we start again, and if we don’t, it’s okay,” he said.

“I have been look- ing around for players to bring to the club, players that I know and who I have played with and I’m hoping to get one or two in.

“At this time of the season it’s hard but all we want to do is stay up and then next year, I think I will get the players who I want in.”

Magennis oversaw training last Thursday, but didn’t pick the starting XI on Saturday, preferring to observe from the sidelines instead as his team went down 4-2 at home to high-flying Steel Cup finalists Sirocco.

Although he spent the majority of his career in the senior ranks, with the likes of Linfield, Dungannon and Ballymena United, Magennis also dipped his toe in the Amateur League pond, spending a season with Comber Rec under Eric Halliday and playing briefly at Albert Foundry, before serving as Billy Youle’s number two at Shorts this season.

At 35 years of age, and having bagged the player of the year award at Bangor last May, Magennis could certainly extend his career for another season at least.

But he admits he’s been badly smitten by the managerial bug, and is determined to prove himself on the other side of the white line.

“I got a call two or three weeks ago and I thought about it and thought about it, and then decided, I can’t turn this down,” said Magennis.

“They are obviously a big club in the Amateur League, it’s a different ballgame to what I am used to but I will give it a go.

“I was at Shorts there with Billy and I appreciate that he gave me the opportunity to come along as assistant manager, but it got a bit frustrating because I want to be a manager, so when this job came up that was it.

“And I’m not coming into a club where they are getting tanked four or five every week, there have been a lot of 1-0 or 2-0s, so for me it’s about getting more commitment.

“After Anto [Walsh], the last manager, left they didn’t get a manager in straight away and people were in limbo and boys left, not knowing what was going to happen.

“I know I’ve only been in the Amateur League a while but it’s much of a muchness. I think there’s not much between the teams and if they have a bit of guidance, you have a chance. If we go down, we go down, but we obviously will be fighting to stay up and there’s nothing to lose.”

Indeed, commitment and discipline are words Magennis returns to time and again when talking to Match On Tuesday.

He says he learned their value when he was a youngster at Coventry, and hopes to bring his own experiences to bear on his players at Ashley Park.

“People always said to go and coach younger players but I want to coach in the Amateur League and coach players who maybe have never been coached properly,” said the new Dunmurry Rec chief.

“When I went to Coventry at 16, my youth team manager George Mackie, he was a good coach but he taught me discipline, and still to this day when I do things I think, ‘He taught me that’.

“There are always things you pick up from people and he was a hard taskmaster but when I look back, discipline is the main thing for me.

“When people turn up late for training or can’t be bothered, that was me at Coventry, but from him I learned so much.

“Not so much footballing wise, because I had a bit of ability, that’s why I was there, but more in how he got players to listen and learn and be disciplined and committed.

“And I want to do that for the players here at Dunmurry Rec who maybe have never experienced that, even at 28 or 29 years of age.”