Carrick manager Stuart King said his side were “not good enough” in their defeat to Loughgall.

Two goals from Jordan Gibson in the first half and a late strike from Benji Magee gave the home team a comfortable win.

“We weren’t good enough, Loughgall deserved it,” King told BBC Sport NI.

“We were weak. I didn’t think there was much difference between the two teams in the first half, but we didn’t really capitalize on two set pieces. After that, they dominated the game and we could hardly do anything. They absolutely deserved the three points.”

Carrick Rangers went into the game on the back of a convincing 2-0 win over Glenavon last weekend and King described the team as “the best there has ever been” after the opening game.

“Last week they got a lot of praise, they were phenomenal and really good. This week was the complete opposite,” King admitted.

“There are enough experienced players in the dressing room who know what’s going on and don’t need to be told.

“We can’t have such inconsistent performances because that’s what broke our necks last year. We had a really good season last year but our consistency has to be at a high level and if we are at the level we had last week we won’t have a problem but today it was not acceptable.”