Carrick Rangers: All systems go for pre-season

Speaking to the Times, Harding revealed four pre-season friendlies have been lined up, all of which will be away from home becuase of work being carried out on the Taylor’s Avenue pitch.

“We were back in training on Monday night,” said the former Portadown assistant. “We’re going to be in three nights a week plus Saturday and at minute we’ve arranged four pre-season friendlies. “Unfortunately we have to play them all away from home while the pitch is sorted out. We play Sport and Leisure on July 16 and then we’ve a game against Glentoran on July 19. That’s followed by a match against Crumlin Star on the 26th. We take on Knockbreda on Saturday the 30th and are trying to finalise two others.

“Obviously, the problem with finalising dates for these games was not knowing exactly what league we were going to be playing in.”

Weeks after the season came to an end on the pitch, Warrenpoint Town’s appeal against their Premiership relegation was rejected after an arbitration hearing.

The club had appealed the IFA’s decision not to impose a penalty on Carrick after then manager Gary Haveron incorrectly served a ban.

A successful appeal would have left Carrick relegated and Warrenpoint in a promotion/relegation play-off.

“It’s a big relief because some of the players we have been talking to weren’t in a position to make any sort of commitment until we found out which division we would be in,” Harding admitted.

“We are still trying to sort a few things out and get a few more players in, but we have a number of people we’re still talking to.

“The mood is upbeat around the club, we’re just glad it’s all over.

“We’re back in training and we have a few players coming in to guest for us. We’ll have a look at them and they’ll have a look at us.”