'Always cruel' injury-time blow but ‘best performance they've given’ for Stephen Baxter’s Carrick
Carrick Rangers boss Stephen Baxter came within the last kick of celebrating full points as the perfect reward for his players “magnificent” performance against Portadown.
Shay McCartan’s own goal had rewarded Carrick for a dominant first-half display but the final say went to the hosts as the Ports playmaker made amends by netting an equaliser from distance on Saturday.
Baxter felt a share of the spoils failed to reflect an afternoon in which “Carrick Rangers were by far and away the better team” but turned his focus to the positives of continued progress since his appointment as manager last month.
"They (Portadown) haven't had a shot on target outside of their goal and we should score five and maybe six,” said Baxter. "There were chances for Paul Heatley to have a hat-trick in the first half, Curtis Allen had a couple of chances he should have buried.
"We should have been miles ahead...but we weren't and we didn't.
"But we created all of those chances and we passed the ball great and got into great areas on the football pitch.
"We were magnificent today...the best performance they've given since I've come.
"And I'm immensely proud of what they've given here today and how they've played."
The experienced and highly-decorated Baxter accepted “that’s football” following McCartan’s closing moment.
"They (the players) are disappointed, I'm disappointed, the staff are disappointed...but take nothing away from the performance because it was great,” he said. "At 1-0 you've always a chance in football with a corner-kick or a set-play.
"It was charge of the Alamo from them...they'd the goalkeeper up taking free-kicks on the halfway line, firing everybody into the box and throwing the kitchen sink at it.
"We thought we'd got over the line, the clock ticking down...the very last kick of the ball is always cruel but that's football.
"I thought we had all three...one point is never great but we'll take it, they're all valuable in many regards."
He added: "The first 20 minutes were really, really super...we didn't get that second goal which really might have taken the game away from Portadown.”