Stephen Baxter 'not disappointed at all' as Carrick Rangers miss out on Irish League milestone

A sensational run of form throughout 2026 – Carrick put together a nine-game unbeaten streak after a heavy 7-0 defeat to Glentoran in January – turned Baxter’s men from relegation candidates to European hopefuls.

The Taylors Avenue outfit required two victories from their final pair of pre-split fixtures alongside Dungannon Swifts losing out to Bangor next weekend, but both fates have been sealed with Rodney McAree’s side recording a second consecutive top-six finish.

Carrick’s focus will now turn to sealing the final European play-off position and Baxter hailed their recent run.

"No, I'm not disappointed about that at all,” he said. "If you went into the bookies, you'd have got 5000/1 on us doing that, given where Dungannon were, where Cliftonville were with the games in hand, that was never happening.

"I always thought in the last three or four weeks that it was always a seventh position.

"If we'd have won today, it might have been different, but there's now four teams chasing that seventh position, Ballymena being one of them because of the way the five games now work.

"Portadown are probably the strongest of the teams in regards to where they are in their squad size, etc.

"Look, we were in 11th position two months ago, and people were going, ‘might they get relegated? Will Glenavon catch them?’.

"Unfortunately, we don't have the panel that can weather the injuries and weather the suspensions, and that's where things hurt you whenever it comes into later games. But we've done a lot of hard work, and that pleases me in a way.

"We'll not get too down or distracted around all of that. We have fought for where we are. We must pick ourselves up off the mat,"