Carrick see play-off hopes slip away

The Gers needed Warrenpoint and Institute to draw to have any hope of maintaining their late push for the runners-up spot, but an 86th-minute Stephen McCabe penalty secured a 2-1 victory for the County Down outfit.

Adam Dick’s first-half lob proved to be the deciding factor for Carrick against a Welders side which didn’t really offer any spark until the final half-hour.

Rangers captain Gary Haveron said: “We obviously needed to keep winning on the slim hope that Warrenpoint and Institute would draw. To be fair, it almost came off with Warrenpoint scoring really late on. We had to go out and win and, at the end of the day, when it’s out of your hands, all you can do is keep doing your own job.

“It was another three points for us, but the game was far from a classic. It was a bit of a scrappy affair. I think we started off brightly enough and we knocked the ball about quite well.

“After we scored the goal, we lost a few players. Adam Dick had to go off and Adam Clarke went off with a hamstring injury. It really disrupts things; we were already missing Conor McCloskey, Anto Lagan and Gary Borrowdale.”

Dick’s goal - one the few moments of quality in the match - came in the 12th minute when he capitalised on a loose ball and from the edge of the 18-yard box, lifted the ball left-footed over the advancing Wayne Drummond.

He almost doubled Carrick’s advantage on 18 minutes but his deflected free-kick flew narrowly wide of the left-hand post.

The Welders’ best chance of the first session came on the half-hour mark when striker Chris Middleton drilled a low right-footed shot straight at the experienced Robert Robinson.

Both keepers were called upon to make saves in the last minute of the half. Welders’ winger Curtis Black angled a left-foot volley across goal but Robinson was equal to it. At the other end, Nathan McConnell stung the palms of Drummond.

After the break Drummond was at full stretch to get his fingertips to Sean Friars’ inswinging free-kick from right-hand side of the 18-yard box, before Black again contrived to shoot directly at Robinson.

Subs Davy Larmour and Ryan Brown gave the visitors added attacking impetus in the final 30 minutes and there were cries of handball when Brown’s effort struck Carrick centre-back Glenn Taggart who was inside the box. Referee Ross Dunlop was unmoved.

On 72 minutes Aaron Harmon forced Drummond into making an important stop and, from that point on, the Welders began to assert pressure. Carrick’s back line, ably marshalled by Taggart and Haveron, defended well and held out for a the win.

Carrick Rangers: Robinson, Kelly, Taggart, Haveron, Bell, Addis, Harmon, Colligan, Clarke (Harkin), McConnell, Dick (Friars 41’ replaced by Harris 86’). Subs not used: Davidson.

HW Welders: Drummond, Beattie, Armstrong, Harris (Verner 77’), Muir, McMurray, Devine (Brown 63’), Adams, Middleton (Larmour 63’), Garrett, Black. Subs not used: Magee, Miskelly.

Referee: Ross Dunlop (Carrickfergus).

More Rangers news in this week’s Carrick Times, available on Wednesday.