Larne enjoy title celebrations after back-to-back titles as club's CEO acknowledges the importance of getting the town's community to believe in themselves

The east Antrim side lifted the famous old trophy for a second successive year in front of a sell-out crowd of just over 3,000 after a thumping 5-0 win against Coleraine.

Whilst football is always centred on trophies won and memories created, Larne CEO Niall Curneen says the work carried out by the club with the community support has been "incredible" since Kenny Bruce's takeover in September 2017.

Since Bruce took the reins, Larne have won the Championship and twice became Premiership winners in seven years.

He told BBC Radio Ulster Sportsound programme: "To do it twice now is incredible.

"A lot of people in this town thought days like this were just a dream.

"There's been a lot of hard work - some investment along the way - but a lot of hard work behind the scenes.

"We talk a lot about doing it for the town and this is what we do it for.

"We had over 3,000 here on Saturday night which is nearly 20% of the town's population, which is phenomenal.

"It's incredible and for a one club town like Larne it just shows you what one project wrapped around football can do.

"This much more than just about football...it's about getting the community to believe in themselves and bring communities together.

"It's a joy to live in the town, you live and breathe it every day and it's inspirational and a privilege to be a part of it.”

Larne chairman Gareth Clements stated that the success didn’t just happen overnight as they had to be patient in their pursuit of trophies.

He added: "The one thing we've always been doing is putting down firm building blocks and every year there will be changes made, but we're in a place now where it's tweaking and fine tuning. There will be no massive overhaul of the squad.

"We needed those three or four good transfer windows. When we came into the Premiership we had a good starting eleven, but when we looked to the bench we were maybe weak - now we can bring players on and we're not weakening ourselves in any way.

"It took us that period of time but it's tweaking and fine tuning as we go."