Rangers gear up to face Lurgan Celtic

“We’re away to Lurgan Celtic and, to be truthful, we know absolutely nothing about them. But we have played a few teams this season from the lower leagues and didn’t know much, if anything about them either. So it’s just more of the same,” revealed manager Michael Hughes (pictured).

“That said, it will be a tough test for us because we are still struggling for numbers. Again on Saturday we had three Under-18s on the bench against Larne as well as a goalkeeper who picked up a knee injury during the week, Simon Steele.

“But, as I have said before, we were aware that this was the situation and there was not a lot we could do about it, so there’s no point in going on about it.

“It is frustrating because it has been going on for five weeks now and I feel for some of the players because we have had players performing in positions they are not used to be in.

“We will be heading to Lurgan, however, with confidence that we can win the game and it’s all about getting our minds fixed positively on the match in hand and that’s how it will be,” assured Hughes, who was happy with a point from Saturday’s derby clash with old rivals Larne.

“I think 1-1 was a fair result in what was a typical derby clash. I think we had the upper hand in the first-half, scoring a good goal and carving out a couple of other half-chances. In the second-half, Larne came back into it, were lifted by the equalising goal and they could have won the game. Our goalkeeper made a good save near the end.

“To be honest, there was not a great deal of quality in the match, more a lot of huffing and puffing type of game. But I thought Larne were a fair bit better than they were when I saw them a couple of times a few weeks back.

“What I have to say is that Larne’s fitness was very good and I appreciate that this is an area in which we probably need to do a fair bit of work. “It was great to be back at Taylor’s Avenue but the pitch did not hold up too well. It cut up quite badly and it was very difficult to play any kind of fluent football. It was tricky to judge, but hopefully that will ease when we get a few more games on it and it is rolled a few times.

“Our lads were slipping, more so than the Larne players, and I think that must have been down to wearing boots with moulded studs. It was especially difficult in the second-half when the dew got into the grass.

“But there was a good crowd, a good atmosphere and the game was played in a very good spirit with not a bad tackle to be seen anywhere. And the result was fair to both teams and everybody seemed to go home happy,” added Hughes.

Report by Kevin Hughes

A supporters’ bus for the Lurgan Celtic match will leave Taylor’s Avenue at 12:15pm on Saturday.