Hughes has his eyes on the League title

A place in the Danske Bank Premiership is the big goal, but achieving that via the play-off route would only be second prize. And Hughes really makes no bones about what he hopes to achieve this season in Championship 1.

“We want to be promoted. That was, is and always will be the target. I’m not going to say that we are going to win the league but we have a strong squad and we desperately want to be promoted.

“Winning the title is the only sure way to achieve that, so that is definitely what we want to do. We have worked very hard to assemble a panel of players which I believe is absolutely capable of being the best in the division,” assured Hughes.

The boss was very happy with Carrick’s final warm-up display at home to Irish Cup winners Glentoran. Goals from new boy Richard Gibson and Adam Dick (two) gave Rangers a 3-1 win over Eddie Patterson’s men. Former Carrick player Jonny Addis marked his return to Taylor’s Avenue with the Glens’ only goal of the game.

Said Hughes: “It was a good performance. I’m very pleased with the boys. They are starting to gel a wee bit and we always looked dangerous when we had the ball in certain areas.

“They [Glentoran] had a few chances and we had a few apart from the ones we took. It was... very beneficial.”