Stephen Baxter says Carrick Rangers' comeback at Crusaders has similar memories of a game when he was the chief at Seaview

In the season opener at Seaview, the Amber Army had a nightmare start as they fell behind within two minutes as a neat passage of play resulted in Elliot Dunlop’s cross being headed into the net by Fraser Bryden.

Soon after, it was 2-0 when Dunlop was the provider yet again for Adam Brooks to convert, before a third debutant in the form of Finley Thorndike made it 3-0 with little more than half an hour played.

However, instead of feeling sorry for themselves, Carrick rolled their sleeves up and pulled goal back from the spot as Jack Scott kept his composure from 12 yards, before there was a remarkable fifth goal of the opening 45 minutes when Daniel Gibson made it 3-2 from close range.

The visitors were much the better team after the restart and stunned Seaview with an equaliser just four minutes after the restart when Gibson added his second of the contest.

Just when it looked like ending in a 3-3 draw, referee Mark Dillon pointed to the spot for a second time in stoppage time for Carrick as Scott rattled home his second penalty to earn an unforgettable three points.

"I told my bench that this reminds me of the time Cliftonville were 3-0 up here and we came back to win 4-3 in a similar manner with the last kick,” Baxter said after the full-time whistle.

"Nothing more than we deserved here today because we worked incredibly hard in the second half.

"We were the team in the ascendancy and we got into the right areas to score the goals.

"Then we had to put our head a few balls in the last two or three minutes to see it out.

"It was a good comeback from us, a never-say-die attitude.

"We worked hard at what we were trying to achieve. Obviously we had to deal with being 3-0 down in areas that I felt we made two horrid mistakes.

"People not being picked up and not being tight to people in certain areas. As a team, not just as individuals, we corrected that a little bit in the half-time...and it paid dividends for us in the second half.”

Carrick only preserved their Premiership status last season with a relegation/promotion play-off success against Annagh United.

With that fear still fresh in their minds, Baxter won’t carried away by getting off to the perfect start this time around.

He stated: "We came back from a big scoreline but this is a team that has just really started to meet each other, play with each other and gel.

"They've only been in six weeks now. Matthew Snoddy arrived yesterday at 11.30pm. He's met his team-mates for the first time, hasn't trained with them.

"You're trying to build relationships, you're trying to cement stuff that you want to work on as a team. That takes time.

“We just need to make sure that we keep working hard at what we do. We're not going to be carried away by anything. We've just got to keep playing and keep doing our best.”