LARNE boss Tiernan Lynch was delighted his team had found their “gritty side” to put their recent struggles behind them with a 2-0 victory over Glentoran at the Oval, making it nine successive wins against the men from the east.
A first half penalty from Andy Ryan - after a foul by former Larne hero Fuad Sule on Jordan McEneff - and a second half close-range effort by the outstanding Cian Bolger gave the east Antrim side a much-needed boost ahead of Thursday’s big Europa Conference League group clash against Swiss side St Gallen at Windsor Park.
Finley Thorndike missed the chance to equalise with a first half penalty - Jay Donnelly had been fouled by Larne keeper Rohan Ferguson - while after the break there were red cards for Glentoran’s James Singleton and Larne’s Dylan Sloan, who reacted to the former’s challenge. The Glens have now missed three successive penalties.
The win means the Inver Reds are eight points behind leaders Linfield with two matches in hand. The Blues visit Carrick Rangers on Sunday.
Lynch said: “I’m absolutely delighted. I think there were a lot of questions being asked of this team over the last number of weeks and I felt it was unjustified in a sense because our performances were quite good, but every decision that could have went wrong for us was going wrong for us.
“We needed to change what we did; we needed to get back to an Irish League performance and our own domestic season without any influences of Europe and I thought we did that brilliantly.
“I don’t think it was a great footballing performance; we have been so much better the last number of weeks as far as football is concerned but it was a gritty performance.
“You don’t come to the Oval and get very much from Declan Devine’s teams without rolling your sleeves up and without grinding out something.
“That was what it was, we grinded that out and great credit to the players.”
Glentoran boss Declan Devine couldn’t hide his anger.
He said: “Frustration is something over recent weeks that we are continually talking about.
“We dominated the game for long periods and again find ourselves losing it. We have got to put teams to bed – I’m sick saying it.
“The players played really well, effort of the players was fantastic, creativity was really good but that final pass, final ball, final cross and that final shot on goal, for all our domination we didn’t work their goalkeeper hard enough.
“I don’t think Larne deserved to win the game at all, but we didn’t do enough to win it either.”
Thorndike joined David Fisher and Donnelly is also missing from the spot in recent weeks.
“We have changed penalty taker, and we do them every day in training. There is no excuse – we have to put the ball in the back of the net,” added the Glens boss.
“They [Larne] get one and put it in the back of the net, Andy Ryan sticks it in for the second time in two games against us. We have three in three weeks and don’t score once.
“I am flabbergasted we lost the game in the way that we did, and I was flabbergasted last Saturday and somewhere along the line it has to stop, it’s not good enough.”
Coleraine hammered Dungannon Swifts 4-1 at the Showgrounds, a Matthew Shevlin treble doing the damage, while Loughgall’s revival continued with a 3-0 win over Glenavon at Lakeview Park.
On Friday night, a goal by Joe Gormley in the 39th minute gave Cliftonville a hard-fought 1-0 win over derby rivals Crusaders at Solitude, the win taking the Reds to within two points of the summit.
Ballymena’s recent slump continued with a 3-0 defeat against Portadown at the Showgrounds.