The table-topping side in the Irish Premiership is a non-Belfast team. Granted, some may argue, the only non-Belfast full-time team in the division, but Larne’s presence at the summit of the Irish League is nonetheless significant. Given it is 20 years since a team from outside the Northern Irish capital claimed the Gibson Cup, and the very particular spoken ambitions to fight at the top from the Invermen, it is something to talk about.
In the past decade, there have been undeniable challenges to the Belfast authority. The first club from outside the capital to take top spot in the top-tier, Glenavon, have claimed four third-place finishes in the past decade under Gary Hamilton. Ballymena United under David Jeffrey were second-place in the Premiership barely three years ago. Coleraine, led by ex-Linfield hero Oran Kearney, pushed Stephen Baxter’s Crusaders and David Healy’s Blues all the way only to fall short in unfortunate circumstances. Now, it seems, it is the east Antrim outfit’s turn to try to topple the establishment.
Questions were asked of boss Tiernan Lynch last season when the Inver Reds finished 5th-place in the 2021/22 Premiership season. The 41-year-old had overseen their rise up the ranks since 2017, but some among the crowd felt it was high time to make a change in the dugout.
There were bright spots last season for a club whose intentions are no secret to anyone. Powering their way to the top-flight after one of the most all-conquering Championship campaigns in recent times in 2019, from the moment Kenny Bruce started investing in the team, words like ‘Europe’ and ‘titles’ were swirling and spiralling. Last season, they secured European football for a second season in a row and mounted a successful County Antrim Shield defence, remaining in the hunt to make it third time lucky this term.
In summer 2018, Purplebricks co-founder Bruce bought in, laying out both his ideas to improve the club and contribute to the town’s development. The season before, they played relegation round fixtures in the second-tier. Four-and-a-bit years on, they are the top-placed team in the entire Irish League, and Bruce has since been rewarded with an MBE for his work.
After 10 matches, their record stands at won eight, drawn two, lost none. Scored 20, conceded just four. They sit a point above Glentoran, admittedly with a game extra played but with a crunch top-two clash at The Oval this Friday, they can establish some breathing space.
Their last match was mesmeric. They stunned the defending champions Linfield 2-4 in their own backyard. This may not be the Blues at their best – Healy’s troops have already tasted four league defeats to start their season – but they knew they would be facing up to quality opposition, and Larne lived up to that tag and then some.
It was not long ago when supporters were grateful just to be in the top-tier and welcome the country’s best to Inver Park in the hope of an occasional smash-and-grab success.
At present, they are one of the country’s best, and they’ve made their home – which, with Bruce and chairman Gareth Clements steering the ship, has undergone a total rejuvenation and revitalisation – a fortress. Regular near-capacity attendances of over 2,000 have flocked in on matchdays, and prior days of mediocrity have been totally buried in the past.
Their summer business has worked a charm. Paul O’Neill and Aaron Donnelly have proved indispensable since joining from Cliftonville. Ex-Ballymena United skipper Leroy Millar has proved a formidable asset in midfield. Tactically, Lynch has made some tweaks and they are paying off.
Lee Bonis, a much-asterisked big-money buy from Portadown last winter, has struck a chord with O’Neill in a youthful strike-pair. While it has taken a while for the goals to flow, his work-rate and focal play has drawn acclaim from supporters and pundits alike, and a six-minute hat-trick in a 4-0 rout of Cliftonville and a strike on the hour at Windsor Park has seen his finishing touch crucially re-appear. He is a difference-maker.
Larne are not like most clubs. That is not to say, however, that it is not refreshing to see a provincial challenger as it was with Coleraine.
The Bannsiders have been perennial top-half contenders, and finished runners-up to their absolute credit in 2020 and 2021. They also had the season of their lives under Kearney – returned to the northwest club for a second stint after capturing Scottish club St Mirren’s attentions – in 2018, yet not even an 89-point return could get them past eventual champions Crusaders. Three runners-up finishes in just over four years.
They remain a top-six team, but with four full-time clubs in the division now, the dynamics have shifted that require them to be innovative.
While Ballymoney favourite Kearney has led somewhat of a shift in style, inspired by the forward-minded link-ups of Jamie Glackin and Matthew Shevlin, one wonders how much more they can give to re-assert themselves in the title talk. A home 2-4 defeat to Cliftonville last time – albeit they beat the Reds 3-1 at the Showgrounds on their opening day – have raised question marks over how ready they are to joust with the title-chasers, especially having failed to beat Larne and Glentoran already.
The sense is that the top provincial team in the land right now, and the most likely to land a knock-out blow to a two-decade tenure of one of the Belfast ‘big four’ having a two-handed grip on the Gibson Cup, is the Invermen.
That assertion will only intensify if they go to east Belfast and do what no team has done in any competition so far this season – beat Glentoran.
As a matter of fact, there have been more Prime Ministers throughout 2022/23 (3) than goals conceded by the Glens across all competitions (2)! After the sides played out a defensively-sturdy goalless draw at Inver Park on their curtain-raising duel in August, both have continued to go from strength to strength.
The Irish League is all the better for non-capital clubs fighting near the summit. Larne should have what it takes to keep the iron hot, returning to the venue where a four-goal substitute display by the now-departed Ronan Hale earned them their second-ever season in European competition at their green-shirted hosts’ expense.
Not that Mick McDermott – himself, like Lynch, justifying the faith placed in him and proving nay-sayers wrong – will roll over. It is these types of bouts that make the Irish League such a spectacle, these close-knit contests, but given one of these units is not used to defending a vantage point in a top-flight setting, there is another storyline at heart here.
It is a good thing that the side living by the Inver are doing well. It is a good thing that there is a genuine competitor from outside the main city – after all, Larne are keen to promote the social media hashtag #ForTheTown. It is a good thing that a well-thought and community-oriented project is being rewarded in the table.
Does their plight also highlight the new, adjusting dynamics of the Irish League? Certainly.
But then again, they would make history if titles were to be yielded at the end of it. Northern Irish football is all the better with their types of fights, and it will be curious to see how long they can sustain their charge.
Featured image from Larne F.C. official website (please contact for photographer credit)
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