By Jonathan Brown
Irish Cup, R5
Drumaness Mills v Armagh City
Saturday, 3pm,
Holm Park, Armagh
Drumaness Mills visit Holm Park on Saturday as they make the trip to take on NIFL Championship side Armagh City in the fifth round of this year’s Irish Cup.
The Mills, who, at the time of writing, go into Saturday’s game with a fully fit squad, earned their spot in the fifth round following an impressive 2-1 away win over NIFL Premier Intermediate League side Newry City back in November, with goals from Sean Paul Holland and Callum Dougan enough to take the Meadowvale men through.
Mills club captain Gary Murdock says the players are looking forward to the experience, with Saturday marking the club’s first appearance in the fifth round of the Irish Cup in over 20 years. “We can’t wait, all the players are looking forward to it. We’re getting the bus up together, and hopefully we can make a day of it. We’re obviously going there to win, but we’ll enjoy the experience while we’re there.”
Drumaness manager Ciaran Brannigan has been to watch a number of Armagh’s recent games, and given their dismal run of form, the Mills might fancy another cup upset on Saturday.
Armagh, who sit second bottom of the NIFL Championship table, have lost nine of their last ten games in all competitions, including a thumping 12-0 defeat to Harland and Wolff Welders on Saturday, and an 8-0 home defeat to Ards in their final game of 2025.
However, the Holm Park outfit possess some former NIFL Premiership players in their squad, including former Ballymena United player Joseph Moore and ex-Dungannon Swifts man Dermot McCaffrey, and Murdock isn’t underestimating the challenge.
“They’re on a bad run of form at the minute, but at the end of the day, they’re a Championship team for a reason and they’ve been playing against some very good sides all year. They’ve got proven players that have been playing at a high level for a long time, so it’s going to be a tough task on Saturday.”
Brannigan’s men were scheduled to take on Dunmurry Young Men in the NAFL Clarence Cup on Saturday, but the game was called off due to the weather conditions, meaning the Mills haven’t played a competitive fixture since 13 December 2025 when they lost 4-3 to Lisburn Rangers.
“We were disappointed not to get a game on Saturday, but we played a friendly against Valley Rangers last week which we won 3-0, so it was good to get some minutes under our belts after a couple of weeks off.
“You’d rather have game time, you don’t want to lose match sharpness, while Armagh have had four games since we last played. Armagh have an advantage on us in that way, so we’re slightly behind in that instance,” Murdock explained.
Armagh don’t offer the glamour tie the villagers would have been hoping for when the fifth-round draw was made, but Murdock insisted that Drumaness are showing the Eagles plenty of respect, as they look to earn a spot in the sixth round and land a big-name away day against one of the Irish League juggernauts.
“I’m not saying Armagh isn’t a big team, they were in the Irish League 18 years ago, and they have top-notch facilities, but our aim is to go out and win the game and hopefully get a top-flight side. But we’ll take it game by game, we’re going there as underdogs, and we’ll give it our all.”
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