Larne go clear at top of Irish Premiership

Leroy Millar opened the scoring for the home side on 33 minutes before Andy Ryan found the net on 76 to make it 2-0.

Jonathan Addis reduced the deficit with eight minutes of normal time remaining, but the east Antrim side held on to claim all three points.

The result sees Tiernan Lynch’s charges move to 62 points with Paddy McLaughlin’s team remaining in second with 59 points. Larne have played a game fewer than The Reds.

Speaking to the club’s media director Ian Cahoon after the clash, coach Gary Haveron said: “We knew that if we could go out and perform as well as we possibly could, we’d come away with the three points.

"We came out of the traps flying and we never really looked back. As much as we’re delighted with the win, that’s the level that we’re at now that we’re really disappointed with the goal we conceded.

"I think we played some unbelievable football today. It was nice to sit and watch from the sidelines, but we showed a different side in the last 10 minutes of the game. You’re going to need that character as we go into the last games of the season. It was a good test for the boys and they came through.”

Larne travel to Ballymena tomorrow (Tuesday 7.45pm).

The former Glentoran manager added: “Tuesday night is our sole focus. The Cliftonville game is done and dusted. You get three points and you move on. Ballymena is never an easy game, especially up there. We’re going to have to go there and be at our best.”

Larne’s east Antrim neighbours Carrick Rangers fell to a 2-0 defeat to Linfield at Windsor Park on February 18.

Second-half goals for Eetu Vertainen (55) and Kyle McClean (77) saw David Healy’s side take all three points.

Speaking to Carrick’s media team, assistant manager Scott Irvine said: “I thought our game plan was working to a tee in the first-half. We limited Linfield to very little. We needed to get through another 15 minutes in the second-half, so to concede so early on and the manner of it is the most disappointing. After conceding, we needed to come up with an idea to get back into the game, but unfortunately it didn’t work today.

"The effort and commitment from that group of players is fantastic and can’t be questioned. They always give us everything they have got and that was clear to see. They kept fighting until the end.

"I think the run of games of Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday has caught up with us a wee bit. I thought we looked ‘leggy’ in the second-half and we don’t have the luxury of changing eight or nine players. The players have been superb from Christmas and just beyond that We’ll take it on the chin today and re-group and do all we can for next week.”

Carrick welcome Larne to the Loughview Leisure Arena on Saturday (3pm).

Irvine added: “It’s what you play football for, in my opinion. In an east Antrim derby you show what you’re about. Larne are flying and scoring goals and we have to make sure that they know they’re in a game when they come to Taylor’s.

"If I’m a player in that changing room, I’m just dying to get back onto the pitch and put things right. We know it’s going to be a tough game, but we’ll do all we can to make sure we’re ready for it.”

Meanwhile, it was ‘six of the best’ for Ballyclare Comrades as they defeated Institute 6-2 at Dixon Park to record back-to-back wins in the Lough 41 NIFL Championship. The victory for the south Antrim side came on the back of Tuesday’s late win over Ards- their first win in the league since defeating Warrenpoint on January 2.

The home side went in 3-0 up at the break thanks to goals from Calvin McCurry (8), Darius Roohi (28 penalty) and Callum Ferris (33). Gary Donnelly made it four on 66 minutes before the visitors responded through Ronan McAleer (69) and Oisin Devlin (72) to make it 4-2.

Goals from Howard Beverland (76) and Liam Hassin (90+1) saw Stephen Small’s charges run out 6-2 winners and move up to fifth in the league standings.

Speaking to the club’s media officer Zoe Tisdale, Small explained: “I’m really pleased for the boys. We’ve to look back at the couple of goals we conceded, but we were on the front foot for most of the game. Some of the goals we scored were really good.

"At half-time, I didn’t want to allow Institute the space to get back into the game. Momentum is such an important thing in football and if we had have slipped our standards, it could have been tricky.

"We’re going to rectify the goals conceded because the defenders don’t want to concede goals. We have really good attacking players and thankfully we proved our worth today at the top end of the pitch."Ballyclare welcome Dundela to Dixon Park on Saturday (3pm).

Small added: “I asked the boys ahead of today if we could get back-to-back wins in this league, which is really hard to do. Now we’ll be asking to do three on the bounce. That is really difficult, but there’s no reason why we can’t go with optimism into next week.”