Nathan Rooney Reflects on Larne’s “Tentative” Performance in 1-1 Draw with Cliftonville

Nathan Rooney, the manager of Larne, described his team as “a little tentative” during their 1-1 draw against Cliftonville. This match marked his first game in charge of the Premiership champions. Ryan Nolan secured an 88th-minute equaliser with a header for the hosts at Inver Park. This came after Joe Gormley had scored to give the Reds a merited lead in the first half. This fixture occurred just three days after Larne’s 1-0 defeat to Olimpija in Slovenia in the Uefa Conference League. Rooney commented, “It was a difficult game – it looked like the week caught up with us a little bit.” He added, “We looked five to 10 yards off it in some periods and we were a little tentative in our approach.” Rooney further explained, “The ball wasn’t sticking so we need that little period to try to get that physical side back into the players.” Cliftonville largely controlled Sunday’s contest; however, Larne increased their intensity later in the match, creating chances before ultimately equalising. Rooney stated, “We had to make changes in the last 15 minutes – we tried to keep a couple on as long as possible as we were under the cosh in the first half.” He continued, “Some of our younger boys came on, the ball stuck, we got ourselves in the box on four or five occasions and probably should have nicked it.” Concluding his remarks, Rooney said, “I’m happy in terms of the last 15 minutes, the resilience we showed but we didn’t create anything in the first half so I think we need to take that forward and build from that.”