Late flourish by Carrick leads to comfortable win

Carrick win the line out against Randalstown during their match at Neilsbrook. INAT44-454AC

The visitors started strongly and had their opponents penned in and around their 22 for most of the first 15 minutes.

However, poor handling and a lack of patience at times meant that all they had to show for it was a Luke Whittall penalty on the 15 minute mark.

The home side began to claw their way back into the game and deservedly drew level with a long range penalty kick after 25 minutes.

However, with their scrum under terrible pressure and Carrick stealing a couple of their line-outs, they struggled to put any attacking phases together.

Towards the end of the first half, Carrick began to re-assert their territorial dominance and two more Luke Whittall penalties – after thirty-five minutes and three minutes into injury time – gave them a 9 points to 6 half-time lead.

Despite the wind now favouring Randalstown, Carrick forced them to play virtually all of the second half in their own territory.

However, a string of errors meant that Carrick did not turn their dominance into points until half-way through the second half.

The try that had eluded them all game finally came 21 minutes into the half when, from turn-over ball, the forwards drove up to the Randalstown line and Curtis Rea forced his way over.

Luke Whittall added the conversion points to give the visitors a 16 points to 3 lead.

Then, ten minutes later, Carrick sealed the win when Andy Kincaid ran onto a pass five metres out from the Randalstown line to go over. From a difficult angle, and with the wind against him, Luke Whittall put over a fine conversion to give Carrick a 23 points to 3 lead which they comfortably held until the final whistle.

Next Saturday, Carrick are at home at Tom Simms Memorial Park to Enniskillen and they will be hoping for a more accurate performance to make it four League wins out of five and consolidate their position towards the top of the Section 2 table.

The Carrick team against Randalstown was:-M. Gilmore; N.Hastings, J. Cullen(Capt), J. Sheriff, P. Simpson; L. Whittall, A. McKinney; A. Gibney, N. Hanna(R.Williams), M. Smiley, A.Kincaid, C. Rodgers, C.Rea, R. Marsden, R. McGonigle(R. Crymble).