Rodney McAree delighted to be able to hand yet another talented Dungannon Swifts teenager their Premiership debut

Danny Gibson’s first-half strike and David Cushley’s penalty put Carrick 2-0 up before Gael Bigirimana gave the visitors hope by firing beyond Ross Glendinning from the edge of the box.

That was further boosted when Kurtis Forsythe was shown a straight red card for a challenge on Leo Alves, but Dungannon couldn’t find an equaliser as Stuart King’s side kept their bid for a top-half finish alive.

The County Tyrone outfit have established a deserved reputation for developing superb young talent and 17-year-old Tommy Taggart is the latest off their production line after making his Premiership debut in the final 10 minutes at the Loughview Leisure Arena.

He has made 24 appearances for Dungannon’s reserves in the U20 Premiership Development League this season and captained the Under-18’s in their run to the Harry Cavan Youth Cup semi-finals, scoring in a 3-1 last-eight victory over Cliftonville Strollers.

"It was nice to be able to get him onto the pitch,” McAree told the club’s media channel. “He has done really well in training and in and around the group.

"His delivery at the end was what we expect from Tommy as well. We wanted to get him on when they went down to 10-men so we tried to get him higher up the pitch and he did that and put a good ball into the box. Unfortunately it just wasn't our day today.

"I'm not going to single anybody out because I don't want to leave anybody out and nobody deserves to be left out. We ended up with Tommy and Aidan Hegarty on the pitch who are two 2006's, Stevie Scott is only 19 - we've young lads coming through and there's lots to be positive about."

Dungannon remain only seven points adrift of sixth-placed Coleraine with four matches left to play before the split which will be against Cliftonville, Glenavon, Glentoran and the Bannsiders on March 23.

Saturday’s defeat was a first in three for McAree’s men, who followed up their shock 2-1 victory over Linfield at Windsor Park by drawing 2-2 with Crusaders, and the ex-Glens boss remains proud of his squad.

"I'm very frustrated (with the result) but very proud of the players performance,” he added. “I thought we competed for the whole match...we weren't just as good in the first-half as we were in the second but I didn't believe we deserved to be behind at half-time.

"We created the better opportunities in the first-half and Carrick hit us on the counter at the end of the first-half. I still felt as though we had the situation under control and Stevie Scott had tracked back in and done his job, but unfortunately he lost his footing and the slip presented an opportunity for Danny Gibson and it ended up in the back of our net.

"Decky (Dunne) makes a mistake for the second in that he gets caught in no man's land and gives a penalty away which he doesn't need to, but Decky has been outstanding so far and been great for us. He hasn't made too many mistakes so we'll accept that.

"It's disappointing and I felt a bit emotional in the changing room after the match because I thought we were so good...we created seven or eight really good opportunities in the second-half and unfortunately the odd little penalty appeal, offside call, we hit the post - it's hugely frustrating but if we get that level of performance week in, week out, we'll not be far away."