Soccer

Davy McAlinden vows to keep Carrick Rangers in Irish Premiership

Carrick Rangers have been struggling in the Danske Premiership this season but boss Davy McAlinden is confident they can survive the drop
Carrick Rangers have been struggling in the Danske Premiership this season but boss Davy McAlinden is confident they can survive the drop Carrick Rangers have been struggling in the Danske Premiership this season but boss Davy McAlinden is confident they can survive the drop

Danske Bank Irish Premiership: Crusaders v Carrick Rangers (today, 3pm)

CARRICK Rangers boss Davy McAlinden remains confident he can guide the Taylor’s Avenue club out of the relegation zone and hopes a raft of new recruits in the January transfer window will stop the rot.

Finn Harps centre back Damian McNulty, Linfield’s Eamonn Scannell, Crusaders ace Ryan Nimick, Portadown’s Darren Henderson and striker Brendan Glackin have joined Carrick this month as they try to put some much-needed points on the board.

McAlinden, who carved out an excellent managerial reputation with Larne, says he had no choice but to bolster the Carrick squad with new players in a bid to save themselves from relegation.

“Einstein once said: ‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.’

“We’ve obviously won just two football matches in 23 league games, which doesn’t make for good reading,” said McAlinden (34).

“We obviously knew it was going to be difficult but results haven’t been good enough. We’ve been competitive in most of the games but it doesn’t really matter at the end of the day if you get relegated for being terrible or you get relegated for being competitive. At the end of the day you’re still relegated.

“We need to turn that competitiveness into results and bringing the new boys in, I hope, will get us better results.”

Both Scannell and Henderson impressed in a reserve team game in mid-week with Scannell assisting for four of Carrick’s goals while Henderson bagged a hat-trick.

Both attackers are expected to feature in today’s trip to league leaders Crusaders while Nimick will not play against his parent club.

“The big thing that we wanted going into January was improving our firepower and we’ve done that. Hopefully we can prove that over the next six or seven weeks.”

Carrick are in the midst of a wretched 16-match run without a victory.

McAlinden, who starred for Cliftonville during his playing days but was forced to quit at 29 due to a knee injury, insists he still has plenty to learn in management but won’t shy away from the challenge of hauling Carrick out of the relegation zone.

“As a player I wouldn’t have spoken to anyone for 24 hours if we’d been beaten, and in the early days as Larne manager I was the same.

“But steadily you realise that’s no way to be as a manager. I’m still learning. I’m still only 34 and I’ve a lot to learn. There’s a thing that Stephen Baxter said to me which was good advice: ‘Don’t get too low with the lows and don’t be getting too high with the highs.’

“I’ve tried to do that. It’s difficult at times because we haven’t won in 16 games. I’d be my own biggest critic. You have two choices: you can either wallow in self-pity or you can show a bit of b***s and try and change things and I’ll do the latter and try to make things better.

“I’m still confident we’ll be a Premier League club next year and grow from here.”

Meanwhile, Coleraine face a tricky assignment away to Glentoran this afternoon in a bid to keep apace with the Crues. Linfield, who have put up a poor defence of their hard-earned title this season, visit Ballymena and Dungannon Swifts host Ards.