Carrick in Currie birthday pledge

DEFENDER Mark Surgenor believes struggling Carrick Rangers can today give manager Niall Currie a belated birthday present in the form of three Danske Bank Premiership points.

Rangers make the trip to face basement side Warrenpoint Town — a fixture Surgenor labels a six-pointer for both clubs.

Currie’s boys — promoted last season after winning a play-off against Newry City — have won only one of five starts, while their ailing opponents are still looking to break their duck.

With Currie having already blown out the candles on his 47th birthday cake, Surgenor feels victory at the Q Radio Arena would be the perfect gift.

“Every game against a team in the bottom three or four is going to be a six-pointer,” said Surgenor. “We are disappointed with our run of results because we haven’t played all that poorly. We are not scoring enough and we are conceding soft goals.”

Coming off the back of a surprise Shield defeat against H&W Welders, Surgenor insists his team must respond.

“We let ourselves down,” he added. “I think we have so much focus on trying to stay in this league, which is our priority, we took our eye off the ball.

“We know it was Niall’s birthday this week. He says he is 47, but there’s only so much sun beds and dye can do — the boys are certainly debating that!

“Seriously, we owe Niall a performance after that result.

“If we were to get a result at Warrenpoint it would give everyone a massive lift — it would also help to put a bit of daylight between us in terms of our league position.”