Annagh United boss Ciaran McGurgan said it would be “unbelievable” to win the promotion/relegation play-off against Carrick Rangers and earn a place in the Irish Premiership.
Saturday’s 2-0 win against Ards secured second spot for Annagh in the Championship and a place in the play-offs after a superb run of eight straight league wins.
Having lost out to Portadown and Dungannon Swifts in their two previous play-offs, McGurgan hopes they can get over the line at the third time of asking.
“The run we have been on has been unbelievable and it would be unbelievable if we could reach the Irish Premiership,” he told BBC Radio Ulster’s Sportsound.
“We’re under no illusions it is going to be a tough task, but hopefully we can put on a performance.
“This is our third play-off in fourth years, I’m just hoping it’s third time lucky.”
Annagh host Carrick at Tandragee Park on Tuesday before travelling to Taylors Avenue for the second leg against the Premiership side.
McGurgan believes that Carrick having home advantage in the second leg will give the Premiership side an edge.
“We’ve just kept the focus on ourselves, we know what Carrick are about, they’re experienced and a big physical team, we have different attributes to that so hopefully we can cause them problems,” he continued.
“Unfortunately, these ties seem to favour the Irish Premiership team but all we can do is try get something Tuesday to hold on to going into Friday and see where it takes us.”
You can follow live text commentary with in-play clips from both legs of the play-off on the BBC Sport NI website
