‘Players need to keep believing’ after Linfield win

The Taylors Avenue side enjoyed a 2-1 win at home thanks to goals from Andrew Mitchell and Emmett McGuckin.

Mitchell put the ‘Gers in front on 14 minutes with a fine strike from outside the Linfield area.

Ethan Devine drew the tie level for David Healy’s charges on 53 minutes before McGuckin scored what proved to be the winner on 64 minutes.

Speaking to the Carrick Rangers media team, King said: “It’s three massive points for us. I thought the boys were outstanding. It’s not about me or my staff, it’s my players, and my players were top drawer today.

“Andy (Mitchell) has come in and he’s raised the standards of this football club. The young boys all look up to him. In the summer he said he wanted to come and enjoy his football and you can see that. He’s been outstanding in every game. What a strike today.

“Defensively on Tuesday night I thought we were poor, we were soft. All week we’ve talked about being stronger and being more ruthless in our own box, never mind further up the pitch and I thought to a man today I thought the players top drawer and they put their bodies on the line, which is something we’ve got to do every week and I’m proud of them.”

Praising his players for seeing the game out and securing the three points, King added: “They are learning. We were 2-1 up against Cliftonville and we ended up getting beat, but they are learning and starting to see games out. But it’s only one game and it’s only three points. It’s massive for this football club, but we’ve just got to keep on trying to drive the standards of this football team forward and keep on improving and that’s what I’m here to do.

“Hopefully now the players believe that they can get results against the bigger clubs because last year we didn’t and we didn’t get enough points last year. We just have to keep on believing and keep on improving all the time.”

Next up for the east Antrim outfit is an away trip to face Glenavon at Mourneview Park on Saturday, September 3 (3pm).

Looking ahead to the tie, King stated. “They are a hell of a side and we know we have to be on it. We’ll enjoy tonight and come back into training on Tuesday night and try and come up with a game plan so we can get another result away from home.”