Carrick Ladies face a crucial play-off

It’s a crunch weekend for Carrick Ladies as they take on Limavady Ladies in a play-off for the right to play in Senior Two next season.
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It’s Carrick’s second end-of-season play-off match in as many seasons but, by a cruel twist of fate, this year sees them fighting against relegation whereas 12 months ago they were playing for promotion to Senior 1.

It all boils down to Saturday afternoon’s clash at the Joey Dunlop Leisure Centre in Ballymoney (2:30 pm).

“Having been involved with Carrick Ladies for almost the past 20 years,” said club president Peter Stevenson, “I’ve experienced no shortage of highs and lows involving both promotion and relegation battles.

“But, to be honest, I don’t think I can recall two such extremes of fortune as our first team has experienced over this season and last.

“We were all on a high this time last season with a superb run of six consecutive wins. And while we eventually only just failed to grab promotion to Senior1. this year we’ve struggled to find any sort of consistency.

“That, in all honesty, has been the most frustrating part of our campaign as we have on occasions delivered some excellent performances - every bit as good as our quality of play last season. But then we go and undo it all with a run of mediocre games.

“Saturday’s game against Limavady is of course extremely important to us and it’s going to be made all the more difficult by the fact we’re playing against a team who’ve become used to winning.

“Following on from last season, we all know the value of building on a winning mentality and I’ve no doubt Limavady will take to the pitch on Saturday full of confidence.

“That’s not to say, of course, that we’ll trot on to the pitch with our heads down and Limavady’s understandable expectations may hopefully act to our advantage.

“In short, they won’t know until the game actually begins exactly which Carrick team they’ll be facing in Ballymoney: the one that threw away an early two-goal home lead and eventually lost 4-3 against a hard-charging Grosvenor, or the one that then went on to hammer Dromore 4-1 in Carrick.

“So, on Saturday, I think it’ll be all about character and determination and I’ve every confidence that this particular bunch of Carrick players can and will find it from within them to rise to the occasion and prove to themselves and our supporters they fully deserve to retain our club’s current position in Senior Two,” concluded Peter.

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