A dejected Tiernan Lynch admitted there was no hiding place for either him or his Larne players after crashing to a 4-1 defeat to Shamrock Rovers at Windsor Park.
The Invermen were utterly outclassed by the Tallaght team in this battle of Irish Champions on either side of the border.
Rovers raced to a 3-0 lead in the first half after Josh Honohan opened after just two minutes, followed by a Johnny Kenny close range finish and a hapless own goal from Tomas Cosgrove, who limped off later with an ankle injury.
This Europa Conference League game was an education for Larne and Lynch insisted his team must accept responsibility for a very poor showing.
“It's hugely disappointing and it's not something we can shy away from, we have to take it on the chin”, said the Larne manager.
“It was very difficult tonight, to be fair.
“I thought we showed Shamrock Rovers far too much respect tonight.
“Tonight's game was lost in twenty minutes, and it was lost probably in the things that we didn't do – set pieces and the goals we conceded, starting after two minutes.
“Your whole game plan goes out the window in a sense and we struggled to recover from it.
“We spoke about it after the game. We have to watch it back, look at it collectively as a group and look at the areas where we fell short tonight.
“We have to face that and we have to work on it to try and put it right.
“For 45 minutes we didn't get near them, we didn't get close enough to them, we stood off them and let them pop the ball around.
“We let them get into a bit of a party mode with the goals we conceded as early as we conceded them, then it was always going to be an uphill battle.
“We had a conversation at half-time as a group and we came out in the second-half, got our goal and we wanted to be different in how we approached it.
“Then, we gave away another completely soft goal and that put us on the back foot again
“I don't think tonight is a night for excuses.
“We can talk about not handling the occasion, but when you concede the goals that we conceded from second phases or set-pieces, I don't think the occasion has anything to do with it.
“Tonight's a night for looking at yourself in the mirror - me included - I think that's what this has to be about.”
Rovers were on a different level to Larne on the night and strolled to a 3-0 lead within half an hour in South Belfast.
When asked, manager Stephen Bradley admitted he had no concerns whatsoever from the first to the final whistle.
“No. And I don't mean that in any sort of arrogant or disrespectful way to Larne.
“I know where these players are. You get a feel for it in the dressing room in the last few weeks.
“They come alive in the second half of the season, they really do puff their chests out and embrace it, and when you put them on a pitch like that, in a big stadium, they just grow.”
