Victory over Seasiders would be ‘massive boost’

The banana skin fixture didn’t trip Carrick up and a clean sheet victory over bottom-of-the-heap Coagh United had some comforting aspects for Gers manager Gary Haveron who is now looking to compound the woes of title rivals Bangor.
Carrick's Glenn Taggart hooks the ball clear in last Saturday's 1-0 win over Coagh United.Carrick's Glenn Taggart hooks the ball clear in last Saturday's 1-0 win over Coagh United.
Carrick's Glenn Taggart hooks the ball clear in last Saturday's 1-0 win over Coagh United.

But the Carrick boss insists defeat for either of the teams in Saturday’s game at Clandeboye Park will certainly not end their title ambitions.

“There’s not a man alive who would have predicted that Dergview would have beaten Bangor 5-0 on Saturday.

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“That win for the underdogs proves what we have all been saying all along, that anybody in this league can beat anybody else, but the margin of victory was quite astonishing,” said Haveron, whose team edged the win over Coagh 1-0.

“You are always nervous when you only have a single goal lead - even when a team is not really threatening to score.

“To be honest, I don’t think Coagh would have scored had they been playing against us until now.

“But anything can happen in a football game; a deflected ball or a ridiculous penalty decision, all sorts of strange happenings.

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“And we really should have been well out of sight, hitting the post twice, a couple of great saves and other missed chances.

“So I was really delighted when Graeme Arthur scored the goal in the 55th minute. And that was to prove to be the decisive moment of the match.”

Added Haveron: “It would be great if we can do the same again against Bangor on Saturday. It’s a 3G pitch but that won’t cause us any problems at all because we train on one and it allows us to play the flowing, passing football that we like so much.

“It’s certainly a big game for both clubs, but I don’t think it will be the end of the title challenge for the losers, because everybody is dropping points and there will be many more surprising results before we get near the real business end of the title race.

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“Obviously, a win in this crucial clash will be a massive boost and we hope we are the team which will be enjoying that.

“Certainly, the players will not need any sort of motivational talk to get up for this exciting trip to North Down,” assured a confident Haveron, who will have a full squad to pick from and will not decide his starting 11 until after both training sessions.

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