Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)

FOUND WANTING

Poor league form catches up on Paisley Park men and new boss Derek Dunwoody knows that the club are now in a fight to survive relegation out of the top flight

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DEREK DUNWOODY says Albert Foundry are rolling their sleeves up for a relegation dogfight after he was appointed as Stuarty Doyle’s successor last week.

The former Distillery under-20s boss officially took charge of his first game on Saturday, a 1-1 draw against Drumaness Mills at Paisley Park, though he has been in the dugout for all of their games in 2019, including last weekend’s Clarence Cup exit at home to Greenislan­d, and a 2-0 reverse at Immaculata on the first Saturday of the new year.

Naturally, after such a tough season, with Foundry winning just two of their 16 league games so far, Dunwoody admits he has inherited a team low on morale.

But crucially, he feels they are not wanting in quality and while there is work to be done to revive confidence, he has faith 15.01.2019 they are good enough to secure their status as a Premier Division club.

Having spent the vast majority of his time in football coaching underage players in and around Foundry’s greater Shankill stomping ground, it’s easy to figure out club chairman Stephen Young’s reasons for appointing Dunwoody.

But the new Foundry chief says the injection of youth will have to wait. With the club just two points above the drop zone and fighting for their lives, now is not the time for blooding youngsters.

“To be honest, it’s going to be a tough job here, they are not in the best of positions,” said Dunwoody, who has been promoted from second team duty.

“It’s going to be a relegation battle and all we are trying to do at the minute is keep them in the league and then build afresh in the summer. To be honest, Stuarty never had a settled team all season. It was chop and change the whole time, but there is still a core there of players who have been with Foundry for years and the last week or so, I’ve brought a few more old-timers back in to help us out, like John Burns and John Martin, because it is not a good situation to bring kids into either.

“We need to stick with what we have at the minute to fight this relegation battle before we start planning anything else.

“But there are good enough players there to get us out of this. We are capable of doing it, I can’t see why not. It’s not going to be easy but slowly but surely we’re improving.”

While he can’t look further than the immediate task in hand, Dunwoody does concede that Foundry need to freshen things up in the long-term, and to that end he hopes to use his extensive knowledge of youth football in the area to make them a force again.

Having enjoyed spells at Shankill Juniors, Woodvale’s youth teams and then the Whites’ under-20s prior to taking over Foundry’s second string at the beginning of the season, he knows the lay of the land in youth football and hopes to turn that to his club’s advantage in the future.

“That’s the area I worked in and that’s what I want to do, bring a lot of the young kids through,” said Dunwoody.

“It’s hard to bring any new players in at the minute, if they have played 10 games they can’t move and if they have played for two clubs, they can’t sign.

“But hopefully in the long-term we can bring the young players through.”

 ??  ?? A RARE VICTORY Albert Foundry celebrate a goal in an early season 4-3 Irish Cup win over Aquinas, but have only won twice in league THIS Saturday Foundry host 1st Bangor before preparing for a trip to Islandmage­e the following weekend. OUT OF LUCK Stuarty Doyle struggled to field a settled side before his departure from Premier Division Albert Foundry
A RARE VICTORY Albert Foundry celebrate a goal in an early season 4-3 Irish Cup win over Aquinas, but have only won twice in league THIS Saturday Foundry host 1st Bangor before preparing for a trip to Islandmage­e the following weekend. OUT OF LUCK Stuarty Doyle struggled to field a settled side before his departure from Premier Division Albert Foundry
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