Dean ​Smith frustration but Stuart King with Europe in sight

Smith had just watched his boys perish by 2-1 against a gutsy 10-man Carrick Rangers at the Loughview Leisure Arena which handed the hosts control of the race for seventh spot and a shot at European football.

It was a first-half double goalkeeping howler by Berraat Turker which gifted Rangers the points as Cameron Stewart enjoy the benefits twice within a number of minutes for Stuart King’s men.

Although Ryan Waide hit a wonder strike for Loughgall just before the interval, they failed to take advantage of the extra man after Rangers had Steven Gordon dismissed for a challenge on Jordan Gibson.

“Once again, individual errors killed us,” said Smith, who quickly hurried away to prepare for the awards ceremony. “Two individual errors cost us the game. The game hinged on the mistakes...the goals could have been avoided.

“It’s been the same over the past five or six games, individual errors have cost us points. For me, I’ve said that too many times this season. It’s something we must address.

“Not for the first time, we’ve played really well in a game and come away with nothing.

“The bottom line is we haven’t been good enough in the split...we’ve no one to blame but ourselves. We’ve played four and lost three.

“We were in that seventh place going into the final five matches but mistakes have cost us.

“When they went down to 10 men we didn’t test their goalkeeper enough, but in general play I thought we were superb but we just didn’t have the cutting edge up front.”

Carrick boss King saluted his team, who now need only one point in their final league game at Glenavon to secure a place in the end-of-season European qualifier.

“It would be huge for this football club,” he beamed. “After we lost to Dungannon, I told the boys they have now four cup finals; they have won three of them. Our form against them (Glenavon) hasn’t been good enough this season, but we must go and win that game. It would mean so much to everything at this football if we could clinch the European play-off place.

“I was so happy getting in at half-time winning 2-1. I wanted to be clear in terms of our game management in the second half. Every one of the boys carried out the instructions superbly well.

“They were phenomenal...I was so proud of every single one of them. Loughgall have had a fantastic year. Dean Smith is my manager of the season. They have tortured some of the big teams, but they haven’t beaten us. My boys deserve a massive amount of credit.”

CARRICK RANGERS: Glendinning, Forsythe, Stewart (MacKinnon), Watson, Gordon, Cushley (McGuckin, 79), Allen (Maciulaitis, 44), Cherry, Gibson, Teelan (Buchanan-Rollerston, 79), Tilney.

Subs (not used): McCauley, Graham, Withers.

LOUGHGALL: Turker, Rea, Murdock, Kelly, Andrade, Teggart (Hoey, 74), Ferris, Gibson (McAleer, 83), Cartwright, Magee (Balde, 83), Waide.

Subs (not used): Devine, Norton, Carroll, Towe.

REFEREE: Steven Gregg.