Larne produced a clinical display too see off Cliftonville 2-0 at Inver Park and continue their march up the table in tonight’s Sports Direct Premiership tie at Inver Park.
The first half remained scoreless, but Larne went ahead seconds after the restart thanks to a Luke Conlan OG. They then made sure of the win with 11 minutes remaining thanks to a strike from the influential Dylan Sloan.
Gary Haveron’s side leapfrog Cliftonville and move into fifth position in the table.
With no snow forecast in east Antrim, both sides kept the temperature up in the early exchanges with Sloan and Conor McKendry firing off efforts in the first 10 minutes for the home side.
Jonny Addis went close soon after for Jim Magilton’s men with an effort from the edge of the area that went over the crossbar from a Rory Hale delivery.
The mid-stages of the half were defined by niggly fouls, culminating in a yellow card for Reds’ midfielder Conor Pepper on Sloan, which threatened to dent the game as a spectacle. However, three minutes from the break the crowd were on the edges of their seats thanks to a former Cliftonville man now in Larne colours.
Levi Ives rattled the left-hand post with a trademark thunderbolt effort from the edge of the area.
A number of Larne players tried to latch onto the rebound before Sloan got a shot away, but Lewis Ridd in goal deflected the shot away from danger with his foot, to keep the game scoreless.
Then, just seconds before the break, Magilton’s team had the ball in the net courtesy of Ryan Curran. But the referee adjudged the striker to have been offside from the Hale delivery much to the disappointment of the visiting support.
Things went from bad to worse just one minute into the second period when Larne grabbed the lead.
Joe Thomson played an inviting ball across the face of goal for Sloan. But before the latter could connect, the unfortunate Reds’ defender Conlan deflected the ball into the back of his own net to open the scoring.
Cliftonville battled valiantly to get back into the game and Just after the hour mark believed they should have been awarded a penalty when a corner appeared to strike Ives on the hand, but referee Ben McMaster turned down the appeals and waved play on.
Then on 75 minutes, captain Rory Hale should have scored an equaliser. Conlan’s cross deflected off Aaron Donnelly and dropped onto the toe of the skipper, but he fired his shot agonisingly wide.
However, as is so often the case, with the losing team pushing for an equaliser, they concede at the other end and so it was to be on this occasion as Larne doubled their advantage on 79 minutes.
Donnelly attempted a pass to substitute Benji Magee in the Cliftonville box but he couldn’t control it. Thankfully for Larne, Sloan rushed onto the ball and shot home to all but finish the game as a contest.
Larne: Ferguson, Want, Ives, Donnelly, Thomson, McKendry, Randall, Bolger, Cosgrove, Sloan, Gallagher.
Subs: Besant, Graham, Magee, McEneff, Nolan, Wallace, Simpson.
Cliftonville: Ridd, Pepper, Addis, Kearney, Hale, Curran, Conlan, Piesold, Gormley, Casey, Corrigan.
Subs: Odumosu, Pettifer, Markey, Glynn, Wilson, McGuinness, Berry.