Carrick Ladies’ goal drought continues against Omagh

A scrappy penalty-corner goal late in the second half was ultimately all that separated the teams. Carrick had done more than enough to claim at least a pointand Omagh will have been happy to take all three points.

“I know I was openly critical of the team’s performance last weekend against NICS,” said club spokesperson Peter Stevenson, “but I really couldn’t fault a single player for their effort and commitment against Omagh.

“Everyone competed ferociously across the pitch and our back four, in particular, were excellent as was our goalkeeper Karen Nelson who pulled off a couple of top saves.

“Our two full-backs, Katie Houston and Robyn Poots, were particularly involved, driving forward wherever possible to try to find a way through the Omagh defence.”

“But we’ve developed a problem over the past few weeks,” added Stevenson, “and that’s scoring goals.

“While we scored three in the McConnell Shield a couple of weeks ago, we’ve now failed to score in our last three league matches and that has to worry us.

“We got off to a good enough start in the league, scoring nine in our first five games, but since then our league goals have effectively dried up and that’s hurting our position.

“Omagh have leapfrogged us and we’ve dropped from fourth to sixth in two weeks. Our defence is sound, much-improved on last season, and we’ve a hard-working midfield and forward line. But, somehow, we’ve lost the ability to create an effective link-up from back to front and our attacks are falling off or breaking down in the final third.

“Against Omagh we had only one half-chance on goal, a high deflection which Emma Nichols did well to connect with, but otherwise we didn’t trouble the goalkeeper and we didn’t win a single penalty-corner, whereas Omagh had about four or five. “But while our goalscoring is a problem we’d rather not have, we certainly don’t see it as being in any way insurmountable and, given the talent we have throughout this season’s squad, I’ve absolutely no doubt the girls and the coaches will find a solution sooner rather than later.”