Arkin s will have Newry goin g for goals:Mullen

NEWRY City will travel to Dungannon Swifts with goals in their mind having appointed legendary Irish League star Vinny Arkins as forwards coach.

It’s an intelligent piece of recruitment from Newry boss Darren Mullen who hopes Arkins can inspire his strikers to hit the net on a more regular basis.

The border club are the lowest scorers in the Danske Bank Premiership with 13 goals in 18 games though they needed only one from Mark McCabe to win at Coleraine in their previous league match.

That victory was Newry’s first on the road in the top flight this season and on the back of other promising recent performances there is growing hope that they can survive.

Bringing in Arkins, who scored a staggering 248 goals in nine years for Portadown, could be key to staying up.

“Vinny will add something different in an area we need to improve on,” says Mullen. “Our forwards can only benefit from listening to someone who was one of the best strikers to ever play in this league.”

Dungannon Swifts boss Kris Lindsay will know the qualities that Arkins can bring having played with him at Portadown.

The Tyrone outfit are looking to bounce back following last Saturday’s 5-1 hammering at Cliftonville. Up until that point Dungannon had been on a fine run of form and were unbeaten throughout November.

Newry, currently second bottom three points above Ards, would go above Dungannon with a win at Stangmore Park.

City ace Declan Carville has faith that Newry can stay up.

“We are very close-knit and once we go out on the pitch we always fight to the death,” said the influential Carville, who will miss next Saturday’s home game with Linfield because he is getting married.

“Confidence will be high going into the Dungannon game and if we want to start progressing up the table we need to put together a good run of results.”

When the sides met early in the season in the league at the Showgrounds, Newry won 2-1 thanks to a brace of Stephen Hughes penalties.