LARNE forward Andy Ryan believes the fact the Invermen not pressing the panic button was key in bouncing back with an 8-1 rout of 10-man Cliftonville on Saturday.
The reigning champions suffered a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Crusaders in their first post-split fixture.
Coupled with Linfield’s results, it meant that they went into Saturday’s encounter at home to Cliftonville needing victory reclaim top spot.
They earned the points in some style, racing into a 4-0 lead by the break – in a first half where the Reds saw Ronan Hale sent off for a second yellow card.
Larne then added four more in the second half - sandwiched between Ben Wilson’s penalty - as Ryan completed his hat-trick.
He insists Larne were calm going into the game and this was key as they got back to winning ways.
“We haven’t had too many disappointments this season, but when we have we’ve bounced back and that was the aim at the weekend,” the former Hamilton Accies striker said.
“The message after last week was ‘let’s not panic’. We wanted to get back to what we’re good at.
“We feel that confidence is always high, we’ve got a good group of boys and I think I said when we beat Cliftonville just before the split that there would be twists and turns and there have been.
“So we just have to keep looking ahead to the next challenge and keep doing our job.”
There are now three games remaining in an absorbing title race.
Saturday’s result put top spot mathematically beyond Cliftonville, leaving Larne and Linfield to fight it out.
As well as a one point advantage, Larne also significantly helped their goal difference, as they look to give themselves an extra edge.
“Getting three goals is a good added bonus personally, but Saturday was all about the three points,” he added.
“We came out of the traps quickly and got after them and it was important for us to start like that.
“We could have stopped after we went in 4-0 ahead, but I feel we were relentless and ruthless and we went for more.
“Goal difference is important. We could have had one eye on Tuesday night, but we were ruthless and clinical.”
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Next up for Larne is Tuesday’s trip to Glentoran, while Linfield welcome Coleraine.
“Glentoran is another difficult game,” Ryan added.
“We can only control what we do, so we’ll go out and try to get as much out of every game as we can between now and the end of the season and hopefully we can come out on top.
“Saturday is gone now and it’s important to move on from it and look to the next challenge.”
Ryan is leading the charge for the Golden Boot award, with Saturday’s treble further enhancing his credentials.
However, Ryan insists he won’t worry about personal accolades while his side is still in the thick of a title race.
When asked if winning the league’s top goalscorer prize was a priority he said: “Not really, no.
“As a striker it’s important to keep chipping in with goals obviously, but it’s not something I’ll look at until the season is over.
“We just want to keep doing our job, which is scoring goals. If we can do that then hopefully it means nine times out of ten the team is winning.”
At the other end of the table, Newry City failed to capitalise on Ballymena’s defeat to Carrick Rangers. Ben Tilney (61) and Daniel Gibson (77) put Rangers ahead at the Loughview Leisure Arena before Noah Stewart pulled one back in injury time.
Dungannon Swifts were 2-0 winners at Showgrounds against Newry, Joseph Moore (21) and a Rhyss Campbell penalty on the stroke full-time condemning the league’s bottom team to a second post-split defeat. It mean the south Down are now five points adrift off Ballymena with just three games to play.
Elsewhere, a Matthew Shevlin second half double helped a resurgent Coleraine score a 2-1 win over Glentoran for whom Patrick McClean was on target at the Showgrounds.
Loughgall maintained their grip on seventh spot with a 3-1 win over Glenavon at Lakeview Park. Ryan Waide and Andrew Hoey struck just before half-time, before top scorer Benji Magee added third in injury time at the end of the second half. The visitors’ goal came from a Caolan Loughran own goal.