Carrick Rangers star feels playing alongside experienced duo is helping bring his own game to another level

Stuart King’s men kickstarted a mini-winning run by coming from behind to defeat the Glens 2-1 in September with Maciulaitis and ex-Oval star Purkis both finding the net.

While things haven’t been going as well lately for the ‘Gers after losing three consecutive matches against Linfield, Larne and Glenavon, the 24-year-old has full confidence they can get back on track towards achieving their goals.

"It has been a frustrating few weeks,” he said. "The beauty of the game is that we have another opportunity on Saturday to start that winning run again and hopefully we can do that.

"We've only played 13 games and played against every team once so know what we're coming up against and what way to set up against each team.

"It's early in the season and we have high hopes.

"We have the County Antrim Shield semi-final coming up which is a big game for us and hopefully we can push on in the league too.

"That (beating Glentoran) was a historic day for the club because I don't think they'd beaten the Glens in a while so hopefully we can recreate that and do it again.

"It is going to be a different game at The Oval.

"Their pitch is a lot bigger than ours so we will need to keep the ball better and play to our strengths."

Maciulaitis has scored twice in the league so far this season and is currently being deployed in an attacking role behind both Allen and summer recruit Purkis with the trio contributing 10 of Carrick’s 17 Premiership goals.

The former Northern Ireland youth international is loving the challenge of taking on full-time powers and is hoping to continue on an upward trajectory.

"It's been great coming up against the best teams and you want to challenge yourself,” he added. “It's difficult because these players train full-time and their sharpness and fitness is good.

"I do feel like we're on the same sort of level and it's great to come up against these teams.

"We've proven in the past that we can get wins against them.

"We create a lot of chances and we probably haven't been scoring as many as we would like in recent weeks, but hopefully we can turn that around.

"Curtis is a very experienced professional and Danny is an out and out goalscorer in the league. It's great to be playing alongside those players.

"Their experience is definitely rubbing off on me.

"I've been getting more game intelligence from playing alongside them and watching them in training. It's definitely been a positive for my game."