By 
TEN years after his previous stint at the club, Ryan Mayse has again signed for Premier Intermediate League side Dergview.
The Newtownstewart man has agreed to join the north Tyrone outfit following seven seasons playing in the Sports Direct Premiership and two and half years at Portadown.
This season the 32-year-old has struggled to nail down a first team place at Shamrock Park and when Dergview came knocking the livewire attacker jumped at the opportunity to return to Darragh Park.
“I was friendly with AC (Andy Sproule) and I hadn’t been playing the last eight or nine weeks. At the beginning of December I had my mind made up that I was going to move on and it was only a matter of where,” he said.
“Dergview was probably top of the list. I coach the youths and AC reached out to me. We spoke a couple of times and our plans aligned. I had interest from six or seven other Championship and PIL clubs but to be honest it wasn’t a hard decision to make.
“It made sense, I’m living in Omagh and Dergview are currently training at Mountjoy so instead of travelling to Portadown two or three nights a week I’m now commuting to Mountjoy. That was a factor as well.
“I know Dergview inside out, I do a bit of coaching for them. I know all the committee and I’ve been there before. It’s a well run club, they are a homely club and look after you well. They are looking to push on and get out of that division and hopefully with my experience I can help them.”
Mayse first played for Dergview in the 2015-16 season and had two spells at both Ballinamallard United and Dungannon Swifts and a stint at Ballymena United before joining Portadown in July 2023.
During his time at Shamrock Park, the Newtown man had no shortage of highlights, scored plenty of important goals and was named in the Championship Team of the Year for the 2023-24 season when the Ports secured a return to the Sports Direct Premiership.
However his career highlight came during his first spell at Dungannon Swifts when he helped the Stangmore Park outfit clinch their first ever national trophy by scoring twice in a 3-1 victory over Ballymena United in the BetMcLean Cup Final at Windsor Park.
During his time at Portadown it’s fair to say that Mayse has had a strained relationship with manager Niall Currie and the first half of this season it appears that the impish attacker has fallen out of favour.
The desire to play regular football is one of a number of reasons why he has completed the switch to Dergview.
“I haven’t played as much this season and I don’t quite know why, I can’t put my finger on it,” he continued.
“A few weeks ago I was second in the whole league for assists and I hadn’t really played that much!
“I needed to get out for my own sanity, I was falling out of love with football to be honest. Going up and down the road, it was tough mentally, it was draining. It was soul destroying knowing that no matter what I did I wasn’t going to get much game-time.
“I lost interest – everyone’s time at a club comes to an end and for me that is now.”
Dergview are currently sitting sixth in the PIL, just four points behind joint leaders Moyola Park, Newry City and Ballyclare Comrades with a game in hand.
On Saturday the Castlederg side drew 3-3 at Newry and few weeks ago defeated the Comrades 3-1 at home.
Sproule’s charges have shown that on their day they are a match for anyone and Mayse has been suitably impressed.
“They have a young squad, they are buying into what Andrew and the boys are telling them. When you have that buy-in then it’s only going to go one way – you are going to improve each week.
“Hopefully with me coming in I can add a wee bit of experience or whatever you want to call it. The PIL is a tough league, no team is running away with it. It’s like any league, if you can put a wee run together, six or seven wins under the belt, then confidence will come and boys will start to believe.
“If Andrew can maybe add one or two more, I think he’ll have a squad that can go and compete, as they have done thus far. They have put it up to teams and are sitting in a good enough position.”
