Saturday 12 December 2020, Kick Off 3.00pm
Carrick have been on/off members of the IPL since first winning promotion back to Senior football in 2011. There have been 18 league meetings between the sides since, with Glentoran winning 9, just 2 wins for Rangers (both at the Oval) and 7 draws. One of those draws came on the last occasion the sides met back in March, a disappointing 0-0 at the Oval.
After surprising many with a comfortable mid table finish last season (following promotion and an instant return to the IPL after relegation in the 18/19 playoff) Rangers have endured an equally surprising start to this campaign - finding themselves bottom of the table and with just 1 win after 7 games played. A comprehensive 4-1 win at Taylors Avenue against newly promoted Portadown has been their only highlight so far and they were beaten 3-1 at home by Warrenpoint in their last fixture. They have lost all their league games away from home so far.
On loan Glens players Stevie Gordon and Johnny Frazer will not be eligible to face their parent club but manager Niall Currie's squad does feature 6 ex Glentoran players in goalkeeper Aaron Hogg, defenders James Ferrin, Dan Kelly and Lee Chapman, midfielder Kyle Cherry and big striker Dee Fearon.
Goals have been difficult to come by so far for Carrick - towering Central Defender Caolan Loughran is joint top scorer so far with 3, along with forward Michael Smith, who bagged a hattrick in their win over Portadown.
Mick McDermott: “It’s nice to be back at the Oval again as we head into an intense period with three games in eleven days – two home and one away. Thankfully, we’ve got at least some fans in and we’ll be looking forward to putting on a good performance for them to get some momentum going into Christmas.
The outcome at Crusaders last week was disappointing after what I thought was a pretty even match. I thought we played well in the first half and created two or three very good chances. But we didn’t put them away. That’s suicidal at Seaview which is a very tough place to go. Then we conceded two very poor goals late on and paid for that with the defeat. The chances were all at nil-nil and really it just proves what everyone knows, that you have to take your chances when you’re playing against a good team or you’ll be punished for it. That’s what happened.
We’ve got a couple of boys doubtful – for example Ciaran O’Connor after having to come off against Dungannon and Joe Crowe who missed last week’s match after playing so well in the Shield Final – so we’ll have made a judgement there after training. But the good news is that Hrvoje is close to a full return and we all know the quality and options he brings to us.
Carrick are coming here off the back of a defeat to Warrenpoint last week and they’ve had a slow start, interrupted by Covid. But I’ve a lot of respect for Niall Currie as a manager and always take he and his teams seriously. However our team performed very well in our last home match and we’ll be demanding something similar today”.
A reminder that only season holders groups A and C will be admitted to tomorrow's match. Supporters are reminded that they can access our GlensTV live stream of the match by signing up or signing in here. Live match coverage can be purchased for £7 (which includes access to a full replay of the action), while a delayed stream will cost £3. Remember, our stream will commence just after 2.30 with a match preview programme, and our match commentator Aaron Agnew will be accompanied as co-commentator by our legendary, quadruple title winning skipper Paul Leeman. Season ticket holders not able to attend the game will have free access to the stream as usual here
