City of Derry seeking to bounce back against Portadown at Judges Road

The 'Green and Black' were on the end of a shock defeat to bottom of the table Carrick last week for whom the surprise 9-5 victory represented a first league victory over the season. It was Derry's worst display of an otherwise encouraging league start and McCarter wants to see his side put it behind them this week against the Co. Armagh men.

"The performance got the result it deserved. We just never turned up," admitted McCarter, "The attitude didn't seem to be there from the beginning; our warm up was poor and it just filtered into the game.

"Don't get me wrong, our scrum absolutely obliterated theirs. I would say we got scrum penalties with 70 or 80% of our scrums and had so much dominant possession, but the fact we only scored five points tells you how many unforced errors we made. I don't think I've seen us make as many mistakes in my life.

"It is a part of us that worries me slightly. We can beat anybody - I still believe that, even after one bad result - but if there is one team in the top three or four capable of losing to the bottom team it is us as well. I know we had a players missing but we had a good enough side, enough quality to win the game.

"I always thought we would win the game. I thought we would sneak a try and it would have been one of those games were we won it but we weren't overly happy. The longer it went on, Carrick were massively up for it and were defending for their lives, so we have to learn from it."

Derry welcome back out-half Alex McDonnell to take on an eighth placed Portadown side who, like Carrick, have struggled for form this season. The out-half's return should see Simon Logue returned to his more natural position either at full-back or on the wing.

It's another potential banana skin but McCarter, who will be up against his old Dungannon team-mate Mark Neilly in the opposition dug-out, wants to see his players prove last week was just a one-off.

"I think we will bounce back. I know his group well now and we've been through tougher times than that game at Carrick," he added, "I see last week as just a blip and I hope three or four weeks down the line it proves just the kick up the backside we needed.

"We've been pretty consistent for the last, well, since the end of November last year. I know when the chips are down we can put in a performance and we need to this week; we need to bounce back.

"I see this weekend's game as a similar situation to Carrick. I know the head coach at Portadown, Mark's a good friend, we played together at Dungannon. We would be in touch after every game and they have struggled all season with injuries and a bit of form.

"Again, I don't want us to be their catalyst in boosting their season. We've to come out and put last week behind us and just get back to where we were. We need to play with far more energy and urgency than we showed last week. If we do that we will be sharper and more accurate.

"I'm not overly worried about Portadown because I think we have to concentrate on our own performance first."