McAlinden sure Carrick will beat drop after surge of confidence

CARRICK Rangers boss David McAlinden has no fear of relegation.

His team may be hovering just five points above basement boys Warrenpoint Town in the Danske Bank Premiership table, but the former bustling defender believes the only way is up.

Carrick have won only two of their 23 league starts so far — however, a bullish McAlinden has told the snipers to come and judge the Amber Army at the end of the season.

He has been heartened by recent performances and was visibly disappointed to lose out to Linfield through a late Kurtis Byrne strike at the Loughshore Hotel Arena in midweek.

“I can’t wait until the next game,” he roared. “Although we were beaten (by the Blues), the performance gives us great belief that we have something to go and fight for. Once you have that belief, one of these weeks it’s going to go for us. And I’ve told the boys, when it goes for us once, it will happen again.

“The big thing for me in midweek was the fact that we had that belief that we could win the game.

“We had been a little bit tentative in previous weeks, so to have that belief against a team like Linfield will do us a world of good.

“It was there for everyone to see. I thought we passed the ball really well in spite of the horrible conditions.”

Carrick, meanwhile, have snapped up midfielder Ralph Kottoy after his release from Larne.