After a very good performance and 3-0 home win against Ballinamallard last Friday night, Gary Hamilton takes his team to the Loughshore Arena for a Danske Bank fixture against Carrick Rangers looking to build on that result with the split just four games away. Last week’s win saw the Lurgan Blues open up a six point gap on 7th placed Dungannon Swifts and also close the gap to 5th placed Ballymena United to four points, albeit the Sky Blues have a game in hand.

With the Irish Cup Quarter Final against Portadown just a week away, Gary used Thursday night’s friendly against Banbridge Town to give the players who are returning from injury some game time so he hopefully will have a full squad to choose from for the next few vital games as he aims to progress in the Cup and make a push for as high a league position as possible. “Every game with them has been difficult,” Gary stressed. “Aaron has come in and got them to a final and he’s definitely made a big improvement with Carrick. He’s brought in a lot of players, he’s obviously been given more money than Keiran Harding was given and he seems to have added a lot more to the squad. He’s got them playing counterattacking football and he’s got them getting results.

“Even in the first game, when Keiran was manager, it was never a 4-0 score-line. They gave us a really difficult game that day but we just scored at the right times. When we went down to Carrick it was probably our best performance but it ended in a 0-0 draw. We absolutely battered them but we didn’t score and then they come to Mourneview in the League Cup semi and as much as we had possession of the ball, it’s all about scoring goals as that’s what wins games of football. They did that scoring their chance when it came along and we didn’t take any of our chances that night as well.

“They’re a difficult outfit to play against and we have to make sure our attitude is right tomorrow and hopefully we can go down and get a result. Our aim has to be to finish as high up the league as possible and the only way we can do that is by winning games of football.”

New signing Chris Turner will not be able to play tomorrow after his FIFA clearance failed to come through in time despite Cowdenbeath, Glenavon, the IFA and SFA all having the paperwork submitted in time. He’s also not eligible for the Irish Cup as he signed after the January transfer window.

Carrick Rangers manager Aaron Callaghan made 10 signings in the transfer window and he’s looking for his new squad to gel quickly and overcome the disappointment of losing in Saturday’s League Cup Final to put a run together between now and the end of the season.