Our quality all over the pitch wasn't at the required levels in Loughgall loss, says Carrick Rangers chief Stuart King

The Amber Army came into the contest on the back of an opening day win against Glenavon but two defensive lapses from corner kicks would ultimately prove to be their downfall at Lakeview Park.

Despite making a bright opening and threatening through Daniel Gibson and Curtis Allen, the visitors would fall behind as Jordan Gibson headed in from Jamie Rea's corner kick midway through the first half.

It would be a carbon copy just before the break as Gibson headed in yet again from a Rea delivery, and despite bringing on Paul Heatley at the break, Carrick never overly troubled as Benji Magee added further salt to the wound with a delightful third for the Villagers.

King said: "I thought Loughgall fully deserved to win but we're a big, big strong team and we've given away two goals from set plays.

"The two corner kicks were the exact same thing and we haven't dealt with the first one, we've changed and we haven't dealt with the second one which is really disappointing.

"I don't expect teams to score off set plays against us and I've told the lads that because we're a really big outfit.

"We were poor today, there's no hiding behind that. We were really good last week but you can't go from being really good last week to being so poor today.

"We created very little, we had a couple of volleys or whatever from knock-downs, but overall, our quality wasn't there and it was a really bad day at the office.”

Carrick will not be in action on Tuesday night due to Larne’s European commitments and King stated his players will need to up their levels for the tasks ahead.

"I'd rather have played on Tuesday because it gives you a chance to fix it straight away,” he added.

"We now have to mope over it for the next few days.

"I generally thought our quality all over the pitch wasn't at the required levels.

"If you're having a bad day and we have a lot of senior players in that changing room, then you find a way to get through it and I felt we didn't do that.”