Carrick Rangers boss Stuart King looking to mix it with the Premiership's elite on consistent basis

​King’s men travel to Cliftonville this afternoon before further assignments on the road against Crusaders and Linfield, which will round off their first month of the season.

Carrick took points off all three teams last term, including a dramatic 3-3 draw against today’s opponents when they recovered from 3-1 down to claim a late point in January, and wants to continue making strides on that front.

"Last Saturday I wasn't in great form at all then I went to watch my friend playing for Down on Sunday in the All-Ireland, that perked me up then I got back at it Monday night in training,” he said. "Everything's rosy now we got a result...football changes so quickly.

"I'm not saying Carrick are going to go every week and get results against the top-six clubs but we want to be competitive.

"We have been competitive over the past year or so, taking results off every top-six team except Glentoran.

"That was the difference last year, although I think we could have done better...so we're just aiming to add something.

"There's still a long way to go to get to where we want to get."

Carrick have arguably had the most impressive summer transfer window of any top-flight club, bringing in the experienced trio of Joe Crowe, Danny Purkis and Albert Watson to complement a squad that helped them achieve a record Premiership points haul last season.

"Some of the players who have come in this summer, other people might think a club like Carrick would never attract,” added King. "Credit to the Board of Directors and everyone around the club, we're trying to improve on and off the field.

"We've been in a good place over the past 18 months to two years but it's still a gradual process that will take time.

"Every year we've added something and there's progression on and off the pitch, so it's really promising.

"We are starting to attract better players but we need to continue to build and cannot take our eye off the ball.

"I think any of the clubs in the bottom six would want the players we've signed and some even in the top six.

"We've done really well but I want more to come, although you've got to earn it."

A successful scouting mission helped Carrick pull off the 2-0 success over Coleraine and King will have another plan devised for the trip to Solitude against an unbeaten Reds outfit.

"Between my scouts watching the opposition and me looking too we try to use anything possible to come up with a plan and get a result,” he said. "The boys who got that result on Tuesday fully deserve to stay in the team, in my opinion, that's the way I work.

"If the boys play well then 99 times out of 100 they keep the top.

"We want to give our best, that's all we can do.”