Cartwright: A new life

Brian McKnight updates us on our ex-keeper

Now that Mark Cartwright has completed his on-off loan move to Newry Town, I thought I’d provide a little background information on the club, whose story over the past few years has probably been the most fascinating in Irish League football. Since re-entering the Irish League in 1983 (they had previously held membership in the pre-war era), Newry hadn’t “broken much delft”, as they say around these parts. In fact, when the league finally entered the 20th Century by introducing a two-division, promotion and relegation set-up in the early 1990s, they found themselves in the First (ie. lower) Division, and seemed likely to remain there. But all of this was to change in 1996 with the appointment of Joe Rice to the club’s board.

Seemingly inspired by the example of Jack Walker at Blackburn, Rice was determined to do a similar job, albeit on a smaller scale, for his local club. Initially his promises to spend big money to make Newry one of the top clubs in Northern Ireland were greeted with a good deal of sniggering, but the laughter was silenced in January 1997, when the former Manchester United, Swindon and Peterborough forward Trevor Anderson quit his job as manager of Linfield to become Newry’s director of football. As one local journalist wrote, it was as if the manager of Liverpool had resigned to take over Doncaster Rovers. As Newry’s joint managers Ollie Ralph and Harry Fay would remain in charge of team affairs, Anderson’s role was largely symbolic, but it it sent out a clear signal that Newry, and Rice, were for real. Located close to the border, they were ideally placed to raid Irish League rivals and FAI National League clubs alike, and Anderson’s footballing credibility combined with Rice’s cash soon paid dividends. An excellent squad of players was assembled and in 1997/8, the new regime’s first full season, Newry romped away with the First Division title. They began the following season with a home victory over Linfield in front of a crowd of 6,000+, and never looked back. True, they never seemed to have the consistency required to land the Premier title, but on their day they were a match for anyone.

The first signs of trouble came late in the season when, with the club still challenging for a European place, Fay and Ralph mysteriously resigned. Around the same time speculation began to appear about the future of Rice and Anderson. Nevertheless, Newry finished the season in third place, earning a place in the Inter-Toto Cup. It’s doubtful whether this was what Joe Rice had in mind when he spoke of his dream of bringing European football to Newry, but it was enough to be going on with. Even more so when, after a narrow 1-0 defeat in Croatia, Newry advanced with a 2-0 victory over Hrvatski at The Showgrounds, setting up a tie with MSV Duisburg. This time a creditable 2-0 defeat in Germany proved a little too much to turn around, although they once again won the home tie, 1-0. In the wake of this success, Rice announced he would be remaining with Newry to finish the job he had started.    Unfortunately his renewed enthusiasm didn’t last, and early this season he announced his departure. Predictably, Trevor Anderson wasn’t far behind, and quite a few of their big name signings have either followed, or are rumoured to be about to do so. Few people would have been surprised if Newry had fallen apart at this point, but they appear to be made of sterner stuff, currently lying in third place once again. Indeed they recently demonstrated that their ambition remains intact (and that there is still some money in the kitty) by appointing Mal Donaghy as their new manager. He in turn has named ex-Wrexham player Seamus Heath as his assistant. (Heath joined the Reds from Luton in August 1983, playing 42 times and scoring twice in the 83/4 season before moving to Tranmere the following summer; statistics courtesy of Peter Jones’ Wrexham: A Complete Record.)

Clearly Mark Cartwright has arrived at a club which is riding high, despite being in a good deal of flux at the moment. Whether he is judged a success or not remains to be seen, but his stay is unlikely to be dull.  RP