It's now or never for Newry City who have five games to save their place in the Championship

Newry City’s backs are against the wall, as they head into the final five games of the season trailing Newington by four points. They need to start picking up wins quickly and that starts with tonight’s visit of Ballinamallard United.

Newry (27 points) sit bottom of the Playr-Fit Championship table and would be automatically relegated to the third tier if they finish the season in that position.

If they were to jump Newington (31 points) and move into eleventh-place by the end of the campaign, they would give themselves a fighting chance of staying up, as they would play a two-legged play-off against whoever finishes in second place in the Playr-Fit Premier Intermediate League.

The bad news for Newry is that Newington have found form, winning three of their last four games. However, Ballyclare Comrades (35 points) may get dragged into the relegation dogfight. They have only won one of their last nine games.

However, the form of Newington or Ballyclare will count for much if Newry can’t start winning games themselves, and manager Darren Mullen is well aware of that fact.

“We’re going into the split now and we need to make sure that we keep the same level of effort as the last few games, but the quality needs to be better,” he told the club’s social media channel.

“We’re bottom, but it doesn’t change anything. We have five games that we have to go and win. I said it from the outset – if we don’t win those games and we go down, then we don’t deserve to be here.

“There will be no complaints; we have had long enough to try and fix this. We’re in a position which we don’t want to be in, but we’re up for the fight. We just need everybody to dig in here and if we can go and win enough games to stay in the league, then it’ll be a big lift for everyone at the club. We have to remove any negativity out of it and go and give it a go.”

City have had a 10-day gap since their most recent game against Limavady United and they’re hoping to have the likes of Jamie Doran, Darren King and Ryan McGivern back and available for selection.

With three of Newry’s final five fixtures – including tonight’s contest – taking place at The Showgrounds, Mullen has called on the fans to be the ‘extra man’.

“We have three home games, and it does make a difference having that crowd,” he said.

“They have been very good for us, right throughout the season, difficult and all as it has been. They need to be the extra man, as the old cliche goes, we need them to come down and back us.

“But it is up to us to try and give them a lift. There is only so much that the fans can do, we need to give them a lift.

“We know what’s at stake, we know what we need to do, and we just have to put it in place.”