Tiernan Lynch savours special Larne title moments before attention turns to planning for further success

Since arriving at the County Antrim outfit in 2017, Lynch has secured Championship success, won four consecutive County Antrim Shield crowns, safely navigated through the choppy waters of two European play-offs and most impressively of all, sealed back-to-back Gibson Cup glory.

The Inver Reds have always been looking to the future since owner Kenny Bruce took over with an ambitious team both on and off the pitch, and it feels like Larne are laying the foundations for significant Irish League achievements over the coming years.

They’ve nailed recruitment once again this season with the likes of Levi Ives, Chris Gallagher and Ro-Shaun Williams coming in throughout the campaign, adding to the arrival of the Premiership’s top marksman Andy Ryan 15 months ago.

The search for further enhancement will take place this summer with Champions League qualifiers set to take place on home turf, but for now Lynch deserves to soak it all in.

"This has been seven years in the making, this wasn't just an overnight,” he said. “There's been a huge amount of work gone in trying to build the club from top to bottom.

"We're in a really good place. We will enjoy tonight, but hopefully more than just tonight and then we'll get a well-deserved break before getting back in for pre-season and we'll go again.

"You don't probably appreciate it on days like this – it's probably one of those which sinks in after a couple of days.

"When I was coming out to the game today Seamus (Lynch, brother and assistant manager) was on the radio and he was talking about looking around and thinking back to where we were this time seven years ago.

"There have definitely been pinch-me moments along the way. It's been a huge collective effort. I know the manager, players and staff take a lot of credit but it's way more than that.

"You don't get to do the things we've done here unless the club is aligned from top to bottom and thankfully it is."

Larne celebrated their latest coronation in style by beating Coleraine 5-0 thanks to Paul O’Neill’s brace and further strikes from Micheal Glynn, Ryan and Scott Allan.

It resulted in them finishing five points ahead of second-placed Linfield and by all metrics this campaign was more impressive than last term with Larne collecting more points, winning more matches while losing fewer, conceding less goals and scoring significantly more.

"This has been a more difficult one absolutely,” added Lynch. "There was probably way more emotion on Monday night (after draw with Linfield), albeit it wasn't over, but we gave ourselves every opportunity to go on and do what we did today.

"We were actually hugely disappointed with our performance on Monday night, but this team did what they do, bouncing back from poor performances and they did it in style today."