Rangers switch to play Swifts at Stangmore

The match was originally scheduled for Saturday afternoon at Seaview but Carrick’s ‘home from home’ is not available because of Black Saturday demonstrations and they couldn’t switch the game to Friday night because the Shore Road venue couldn’t accommodate them due to other commitments for the 3G pitch that evening.

“We certainly didn’t want to have a blank weekend. That’s one of the reasons we wanted to get out of the Championship grade, so that we would have football week in and week out, with a proper schedule of matches. So we spoke to the officials of Dungannon Swifts and they were happy to take the match to Stangmore Park, with match on November 5 being played at Seaview instead of Dungannon,” explained manager Stephen Small.

“The monkey’s off our backs now we’ve got our win and the pressure has stopped building in the pot. And that is important because it was something that was naturally lurking in our minds. But, good as it was to get a victory, we’ll not be in any danger of thinking that we have arrived just yet.

“Dungannon may be sitting below us in the table, bottom of the heap, in fact, but there’s no questioning their ability, They drew with Coleraine and perhaps should have won, they lost narrowly to Glentoran with manager Scott Young admitting the Glens were flattered by the result – and it was no disgrace to lose to high-flying Linfield last Saturday.

“The Tyrone team is an established Premier League side and bristling with quality players in all departments. And they will be hungry for points, especially on their own patch, which is a notoriously difficult place for visiting teams to get results.

“That said, the same sentiments applied prior to our visit to Mourneview Park last weekend. They had been playing well and should have had better results and we turned them over, albeit with a wee bit of luck on our side.

“Strangely, I believe we played better defensively in the first two games than we did last weekend. We left ourselves a wee bit open in Lurgan and, if they had been less ponderous in front of goal, they would have been in a very strong position at half-time.

“Instead, they proved wasteful and gave us a wee opening or two and we got the goal just before the break to knock them back on their heels. And I think that served to put them under a wee bit of unexpected pressure because they had played fairly well and were suddenly in trouble.

“To go two in front and then have them pull a goal back, only for us to hold out for the three points, showed that we have a bit of character and the win was massive in terms of instilling the necessary belief in the players.

“Had we been faced with going three, four or five games without a result, our confidence would have been severely tested,” said small