Packie Mailey encouraged by youthful Bonagee’s steady progress 

Packie Mailey has been quite encouraged by his first few months as the Bonagee United manager.

But for injury, the 36-year-old would more than likely be at the heart of the Bonagee defence directing proceedings but, instead, he’s manager of the Premier Division table-toppers.

Bonagee welcome their cross-town rivals Letterkenny Rovers to Dry Arch Park on Sunday for a tasty derby between two of the Premier Division heavyweights - their first league clash in the top flight since their returns to junior football after the Ulster Senior League’s cessation. 

With a little imbalance in terms of games played, Bonagee - who have blended a large cohort of youngsters this season - have a five-point buffer at the summit. The Stephen McConnell-managed Letterkenny Rovers, however, have two few games played.

A 3-2 home loss at the hands of Keadue Rovers in December remains the sole blot on the Bonagee copybook in their nine Premier Division games so far.

“We aren’t getting carried away with things; we’re just steadily going along,” Mailey says. “I could always be happier, but the application from the boys, the guys helping me and the club itself has been very good.”

A former Finn Harps captain, Mailey was appointed as the successor to Jason Gibson last May at Dry Arch Park. Gibson had six season’s at the helm and Bonagee last term won promotion back to the top flight having previously played at Ulster Senior League level.

As a player, Mailey lined out 170 times for Harps and he also had spells at Hibernian and Stenhousemuir in Scotland and Ballinamallard United in the Irish League before moving to Bonagee in 2019.

“The grey hairs might say different, but it’s been encouraging,” Mailey says of his switch to the dug-out.

“Everything I have asked of the boys, they have given me. We ask them to come every night with an attitude and a focus to develop and get better.” 

Between Bonagee on top and Kilmacrennan Celtic in fourth - who also have two games in hand - there is only a six-point gap with Kildrum Tigers also sitting nicely poised and defending champions Fanad United having the benefit of games in hand to climb.

A 1-0 loss to Cockhill Celtic on Sunday saw Bonagee exit the Ulster Junior Cup, but Mailey took comfort from his side’s performance.

He says: “We’ll take a lot out of it. Cockhill were the FAI Junior Cup winners last year. They’re a formidable outfit. We have a lot of young lads coming through and it was great to see them put themselves against some of the best in Ireland.

“We were disappointed to lose against Cockhill. We want to win games and we didn’t get the win. It was definitely a game that we let slip by. 

“We can’t be too down about it. We’re straight back into the League again so it’s just one of those ones we need to shake off. It’s one we let go, but we just have to move on.

“We should have put the game to extra time anyway. We didn’t take chances. You get days like that where the bounce of the ball doesn’t fall.

“When chances are at a minimum and you get opportunities, you need to be clinical. We were a bit unlucky, but that’s something we’ll work on and hopefully the next time we get chances in those positions we’ll be more clinical.”

A potentially career-ending cruciate ligament injury sustained by Michael Funston deprived Mailey of one of his key assets on the pitch early in the season.

The Convoy native lured his former Harps team-mate Gareth Harkin back to Bonagee, while Greencastle’s James Henry was drafted. Jack Parke, an Irish amateur international, returned from a spell at Dergview. 

Young guns like Andrew Nicholls, Fintan Hassan, Ricky Guntrip, Shay Maloney and Eoghan Doherty have seamlessly transitioned to first team football while Jamie Harris has bagged 12 goals so far.

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Mailey says: “We have a couple of more experienced players, but we have a good influx of youth there. We are trying to surround them with experience and leadership from the likes of Gareth Breslin, Gareth Harkin and those lads. They’ll learn from that, develop their own game and, hopefully, kick on.”