At the start of the winter window of 2024, I wrote on this site that January would play a key role in deciding who would emerge as Sports Direct Premiership champions come the close of the season.
Larne took that notion to heart on Friday night, and it is no surprise that they are in the box seat with the split fast upon us.
It was telling and, indeed, a show of their on-field success lately that two mid-term captures contributed the goals that both downed Glentoran and sent out a statement that they aren’t willing to loosen their grip on the Gibson Cup.
Having won their first-ever top-flight crown in 2023, the Invermen are a machine to start the new calendar year; they’ve neither dropped a point nor conceded a goal in league play, and that proud record still stood following their 3-0 home success over the Glens that marked a sixth straight clean-sheet triumph in the Premiership.
Larne were ridiculed in certain quarters when they splashed out a reported club-record £100,000 to recruit frontman Lee Bonis from Portadown, given the then-22-year-old had scored only three league strikes in the 2021/22 campaign hitherto, but any method behind the madness has long since been realised and the striker notched up another couple to hit the half-century in the goal column since changing his shade of red 25 months later.
His finishes against the east Belfast outfit sandwiched a delectable free-kick from Andy Ryan, who linked up from Scottish side Hamilton Academical 12 months after Bonis, which helped ensure three more points for the league kitty. They sit on 73, one clear of closest challengers Linfield with a game in hand.
Ryan’s pedigree having played across all four tiers of the league system in Scotland was well-documented, but his transformative impact when first rocking up to Inver Park that resulted in title glory made him an instant fans’ favourite – and he’s continued to produce the goods.
That’s 15 for him and 12 for Bonis in the Premiership this term, and they’ve put Larne in a commanding position indeed. A mention for Ryan’s countryman Joe Thomson, too; Larne mightn’t even have been in this position without his series of clutch goals in the first half of the campaign having also linked up from Derry City that same January.
Bolstering their pack further in the winter of 2024 with the recruits of midfielder Chris Gallagher from Cliftonville and former Manchester United hotshot Ro-Shaun Williams, the reigning champions are in fresh nick for another strong run-in.
And with Cliftonville and Linfield both stuttering first – the Blues having endured a three-game winless blip before their north Belfast rivals suffered successive losses, most recently a 3-1 reversal to Dungannon Swifts on Saturday – Tiernan Lynch’s men don the favourites tag they so relished last year.
Unbeaten in the league since September when Benji Magee and Loughgall handed them their only Premiership defeat to date – it’s still their only loss aside from penalties in any competition this term – Larne will keep motoring on and utilising their strength at both the top and back ends of the pitch.
There’s no doubt, mind, that their work mid-season has proved pivotal and worked wonders.
Bonis and Ryan hitting the target against Glentoran only served to ram home that point; that January is a time for playing your cards right and, in time, reap the rewards when you do.
Larne, with a County Antrim Shield four-peat already wrapped up, may be about to do so again.
Featured image from Larne FC Media.
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