SCORELESS AT THE OVAL BUT GLENS MOVE SECOND
Glentoran moved into second spot in the table despite being held to a scoreless draw by Carrick Rangers at The Oval.
After a somewhat cagey start to proceedings it fell to Robbie McDaid to carve out the first effort of note on ten minutes when he turned in the area before testing Harry Doherty with a dipping ball.
McDaid produced another effort soon after, with Doherty looking comfortable making the save while, later in the half, new Glentoran signing Ruaidhri Donnelly almost marked his debut with a goal only to fail to get a strong enough connection to Marcus Kane's header across the box.
Glentoran continued to press, with McDaid getting past Danny Magill but just as he was about to shoot Mark Surgenor popped up with a brilliantly timed tackle forcing the ball onto the roof of the net.
Carrick's best effort of the evening came just before the hour through Reece Neale's superb half-volley from the edge of the area which keeper Elliott Morris did well to acrobatically keep out.
Donnelly was denied again just after the hour when his header from Navid Nasseri's corner look destined for the top corner only for Doherty to produce a superb stop.
And Doherty pulled out another top drawer save later in the half to keep out Kane's close range header.
There was almost some stoppage time drama when Carrick's Daniel Reynolds struck an upright after being played through by Neale.
Glentoran: Morris, Kane, Peers, Gallagher, McDaid, McClean, Nasseri, Crowe, Mitchell, Marron, Donnelly subs Garrett (not used), Frazer (replaced Nasseri 81), O'Neill (not used), Antolovic (not used), van Overbeek (replaced Mitchell 57), O'Connor (not used), Matulevicius (replaced Donnelly 69)
Carrick Rangers: Doherty, Carson, Neale, Surgenor, Loughran, D. Kelly, Magill, Smith, Cherry, Gawne, Anderson subs Nicholl (not used), Rodgers (replaced Magill 46), Faulkner (replaced Anderson 71), Hassin (not used), Reynolds (replaced Gawne 81), Colligan (not used), E. Kelly (not used)
Substitution 
Substitution 
