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Steven Crawford

Stuart King has clear focus as he continues to improve Carrick Rangers

While Stuart King enjoyed Carrick Rangers dramatic 3-3 draw with league leaders Cliftonville last Friday night he was quick to refocus his players for their next challenge.

Carrick head to basement side Portadown on Friday evening and King wants more of the same from his squad, but he is expecting a tough test from Niall Currie's side.

"I said that to the players, I said to enjoy the moment but we're back to prepare for Portadown," he said.

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"I was at the Newry game when they lost the points and I thought they were outstanding that day.

"It doesn't matter who you play if you're not on it in the league then you won't get anything out of the game.

"I will have a game plan to go and get another result because we need to pick up more points each year and drive the club forward.

"We're in a decent position with 16 games to go."

With striker Curtis Allen set to be missing for the foreseeable King moved to boost his attacking options with the signings of Jamal Dupree and Nedas Maciulaitis.

And with Emmett McGuckin impressing on his return against the Reds last week King feels they are in decent shape for the rest of the season.

"Unfortunately Curtis is going to be out for a while. It's a big blow because I think he scored nine goals in as many games," he said.

"It's really hard to get a goal scorer and he was exactly what we needed.

"For us to entice him here in the first place was unbelievable, but we miss him.

"Emmett was missing for three weeks but his performance last Friday night was phenomenal in both boxes.

"Curtis is our talisman, he scores goals and we badly miss him, but we needed a focal point and as I say Emmett did it in both boxes.

"We're doing OK and all I want to do is improve this place. Hopefully we can do that.

"We've done well, in some games we didn't get the rub of the green but we've played really well.

"We've missed so many senior players in the last few weeks but we're round the other side of it now."

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