Saturday evening’s top two tussle at Windsor Park was always going to carry a huge significance – one way or another.
Had Linfield won, the engravers would likely have been readying themselves to etch their name on the Gibson Cup even at this early stage. 11 points, though by no means unassailable in November, surely is too big a lead to claw back barring a collapse, too big a mountain for the chasing pack to climb.
The title race felt like it hinged on Larne taking the total spoils back to east Antrim. The champions, keen to defend their first-ever Irish League crown, knew that much was riding on them – and when the Blues’ wing wizard Joel Cooper drew first blood for the hosts 15 minutes deep into proceedings, the fear was that a high-stakes occasion would wilt into a formality.
But how they rose to the occasion after that.
The Inver Reds levelled nine minutes later with a peach from distance, Mark Randall unleashing and picking out the top left corner, and the momentum of the clash was swinging in their favour.
It was hardly against the run of play, either, when Joe Thomson followed up the Englishman’s 25-yard thunderbolt with a deft glancing header, meeting Levi Ives’ inswinging cross above Chris Shields and planting across Chris Johns to put Tiernan Lynch’s men in front five minutes before the hour.
The team from the harbour held out until the final whistle. They rode the crest of a wave to cut Linfield’s advantage at the summit to five points.
Making this the biggest result in the Irish League season to date.
David Healy’s charges’ 10-match winning run across all competitions began after a defeat to Larne at Inver Park and, lo and behold, it was the same adversaries to bring that streak to a shuddering halt a full eight weeks later.
The Invermen really are the nemesis of the 56-time record title winners; that’s three times they’ve beaten the most established of elites in Northern Ireland football this term, inclusive of the 1-0 victory in south Belfast when Thomson struck again to continue their interest in the County Antrim Shield.
That man is gold dust right now.
The Scotsman is in scintillating form; after his brace turned the tide to hand 10-man Larne a comeback triumph in Newry a fortnight ago, and having struck to twist the knife in their Friday night success over Cliftonville eight days prior, the Paisley ace came up trumps once more.
He’s delivering in the pressure cooker and, with nine strikes so far, he’s already enjoying the finest goalscoring season of his career.
Since joining from Derry City in January, the 26-year-old has made his presence felt – he has been reinvented and is taking it in his stride.
Thomson, and indeed former Arsenal young gun Randall, also showcase the value of having goal-getting midfielders within one’s ranks.
As Larne are finding out, despite having strikers like Lee Bonis, Andy Ryan and Paul O’Neill who know where the net is, those forays forward from the centre of the park make a huge difference.
They are the beating heart of their operations at present and, thanks in large part to them, what could have been mission impossible now feels all the more possible.
Featured image from INPHO/Brian Little.
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