Glentoran Manager Devine “Flabbergasted” by Defeat and Persistent Penalty Misses

Glentoran currently occupies the seventh position in the league standings, following their sixth loss in 15 Irish Premiership matches. Manager Declan Devine stated he was “flabbergasted” after his team’s 2-0 defeat against Larne at the Oval, a match that also marked their third missed penalty in as many home fixtures. Larne, managed by Tiernan Lynch, opened the scoring with a penalty kick. Subsequently, Finley Thorndike became the most recent Glentoran player to fail to convert a penalty, contributing to what Devine characterized as an “unacceptable” conversion rate. Following the restart, Cian Bolger scored Larne’s second goal, extending the east Belfast club’s winless streak in the league to three matches. Speaking to BBC Sport NI, Devine remarked, “Frustration is something over recent weeks that we are continuedly talking about. We dominated the game for long periods and again find ourselves losing it. We have got to put teams to bed, I’m sick saying it. The players played really well, effort of the players was fantastic, creativity was really good but that final pass, final ball, final cross and that final shot on goal, for all our domination we didn’t work their goalkeeper hard enough. I don’t think Larne deserved to win the game at all, but we didn’t do enough to win it either.” Thorndike’s missed penalty follows similar failures from David Fisher and Jay Donnelly in recent weeks. The Glens boss further stated, “We have changed penalty taker, and we do them everyday in training. There is no excuse we have to put the ball in the back of the net. They [Larne] get one and put it in the back of the net, Andy Ryan sticks it in for the second time in two games against us. We have three in three weeks and don’t score once. I am flabbergasted we lost the game in the way that we did, and I was flabbergasted last Saturday and somewhere along the line it has to stop, it’s not good enough.”