Tiernan Lynch “Delighted” with Larne’s “Gritty” Performance in Glentoran Victory

Larne manager Tiernan Lynch stated he was “delighted” with his team’s “gritty” performance following their 2-0 victory against Glentoran at the Oval. Andy Ryan’s spot-kick gave the away side the lead at the break, and Cian Bolger’s close-range finish later secured the points for the Inver Reds. This win marked an end to a three-game winless streak in the league for Larne, who now sit ninth in the table with games in hand due to their involvement in the UEFA Conference League. “I’m absolutely delighted,” Lynch told BBC Sport NI.”I think there were a lot of questions being asked of this team over the last number of weeks and I felt it was unjustified in a sense because our performances were quite good, but every decision that could have went wrong for us was going wrong for us. “Today we needed to change what we did; we needed to get back to an Irish League performance and our own domestic season without any influences of Europe and I thought we did that brilliantly.” The visitors had to weather an early storm after Glentoran were the dominant side in the opening 20 minutes in east Belfast, with Lynch praising his players for “rolling up their sleeves”. “I don’t think it was a great footballing performance; we have been so much better the last number of weeks as far as football is concerned but it was a gritty performance,” Lynch continued.”You don’t come to the Oval and get very much from Declan Devine’s teams without rolling your sleeves up and without grinding out something. “That was what today was, we grinded that out and great credit to the players.”