Forget about shielding, there are bigger prizes in Larne’s sights now
IKNOW it is still relatively early in the season but this weekend will see a momentous clash that could have huge ramifications on the Danske Bank Premiership campaign.
Yes indeed, Glentoran v Carrick Rangers, a real relegation six-pointer if ever there was one.
Oh, alright then, I’m being whimsical. I had a whiff of brandy cream in a mince pie and I’m a little bit giddy, but nothing to what the good folk of Larne (and some of the bad ones too) will be feeling if they can see off Linfield tomorrow night.
The clash at Inver Park is match day 10 in the league and, to date, tomorrow night’s protagonists have lost just one game between them, the only reversal that staggering defeat of Linfield by Warrenpoint Town a fortnight ago.
The champions bounced back well from that reversal with a convincing 2-0 victory over Cliftonville that kept them nibbling at the heels of Tiernan Lynch’s men.
It has a feeling of a big game, not just for the league this season and the fact that it’s live on telly, but it is a colossal one in the history of Larne Football Club.
It has already been a pretty historic month for the club, holding their nerve last week to end the hunt for a senior trophy that stretched back to 1987 when they got the better of Glentoran Under-11s in the final. Sorry, it’s the brandy cream talking.
A note of warning though, don’t be losing the run of yourself.
A word from the wise. Ballymena United similarly ended their aversion to meaningful silverware when they lifted the biggest trophy in local football (fact), beating the Blues on penalties in the 2012 Shield decider.
This prompted scenes of such celebration by the Braid usually only reserved for the DUP annual conference or St Patrick banishing snakes from Slemish.
You couldn’t go anywhere for months without the Shield making an appearance, and every man, woman, child and sheep had their picture taken with it before it was handed back.
Indeed, if you look very closely, there is a scene when Liam Neeson is closing in on a baddie in Taken 3 only for him to be foiled when he asks them if they fancy a quick snap with the Shield.
I don’t think Larne will fall into the same trap. They already have their gaze set firmly on bigger (not in size) prizes, and while a win over Linfield tomorrow evening would be another step towards that, it would be just that.
I’m sure David Healy will love to be going into the game with everyone talking about Larne. In his five years at the helm of Linfield, he has relished proving the doubters wrong and, in fairness, he and his team haven’t often been found wanting when it really matters.
But to put things into perspective, when Healy took charge of Linfield for the first time back in October 2015, while his side were winning at Warrenpoint, Larne were playing at Loughgall.
They won 7-3 that day, but the team sheet and those behind the scenes are much-changed from a day when Larne kept themselves in the top six of the Championship but fell short of promotion in the end.
Lynch’s arrival ahead of owner Kenny Bruce riding back into town with his pockets full of goodies was another of those days in the Inver diary you can ring with a red pen.
Rather aptly, given Bruce made his millions in bricks and mortar, the oft-quoted line from Field of Dreams — ‘If you build it, they will come’ — has borne fruit, with those who raised doubts and eyebrows at the arrival of, and no disrespect to those on the east Antrim Riviera, players who wouldn’t have been seen dead or alive in Larne.
Jeff Hughes is a classic case in point, a hometown boy who carved out a good career in England, picked up a few Northern Ireland caps, and now, as he gets on a bit in footballing terms, comes home and scores the winning penalty in the Shield final.
Davy Mcdaid, a proven class act, turned down Linfield to come to Larne. People thought he was crazy, but it is his goals that have helped fire the Invermen to the top of the table.
The ex-factor, former Cliftonville men Marty Donnelly, Conor Devlin and Tomas Cosgrove, are key components in the team, and throw in imported class such as Fuad Sule, Ben Tilney and Mark Randall and there is quality everywhere you look.
They have also plucked selectively from elsewhere in the league, the likes of John Herron and Saturday’s match-winning hero against Glenavon Johnny Mcmurray making the move.
And, rather deliciously given tomorrow night’s opponents, there are some former Bluemen, the globe-trotting Albert Watson, Andy Mitchell and Josh Robinson, who scored the winner for Linfield when they defeated Larne at Windsor Park last November.
That was another result where the doubters said, ‘Aye, they can do it against the wee sides, but not the top six’ and, for a while, they were right, but that changed in January.
It was a crazy old month really. At the start of it, Linfield were dumped out of the Irish Cup by Queen’s University and some were calling for Healy’s head.
He was the best thing since sliced pan a couple of weeks later when they beat Glenavon 8-1, while Larne had a breakthrough moment when they defeated Glentoran, that first win over a top six club finally secured.
Another was to follow quickly, Linfield defeated 3-1, and while they recovered to go on and collect the Gibson Cup when the season was culled, Larne were denied the chance of a late push to finish higher than sixth.
Tellingly, they haven’t lost a league game since, a remarkable run of 13 games with 11 wins and two draws since defeating Glentoran.
The only blips were draws against the Glens and those pesky kids from Warrenpoint, and so we are set up for a real festive cracker tomorrow night, live on BBC NI.
And on real TV as well, not the streaming thingymajig, so at least the ‘we are experiencing technical difficulties’ screen will, hopefully, get the night off.
So, are Larne getting carried away with it all? Lynch, who picked up a second Manager of the Month award, certainly seems to have his feet firmly planted on the 4G.
Speaking after last week’s win against Glenavon — a result that certainly had the feel of one of those title-defining games — Lynch certainly didn’t try to downplay the importance of the visit of the champions.
“I’m not looking at the table, I’m looking at the clash. It’s a game we have to embrace,” he said. “When we talked to these players about coming to Larne, these were the games that we were selling them.”
They certainly seem to have bought into it and, as he picked up his own monthly gong, Lynch explained where they were at.
“We spent a lot of time ensuring that we recruited not simply good players, but good people as we wanted to build a culture of success,” he said.
“This award reflects the hard work of everyone at this club. It’s a special place to be right now.”
So, it’s Friday night and Larne is the place to be — words we thought we would never hear. Just forget about all the shielding and take the next step in the grand plan.