David Healy reflects on ‘tough week’ as he congratulates title winners Larne

The Inver Reds were crowned Danske Bank Premiership champions less than 24 hours before Linfield took to the pitch to face Coleraine on the Ballycastle Road.

In what was a cagey game, the visitors would tighten their grip on second place – and automatic European qualification – as Niall Quinn came off the bench to drill home an 87th minute winner for the Blues.

Whilst being pleased to see his players register the victory at The Showgrounds, a sporting Healy was also quick to congratulate Larne for their historic success.

"I am satisfied with the result and I thought we put in a pretty good performance,” he said.

"We got overloaded a bit and looked like we were going to concede a goal but credit to the players, they fought until the end and Niall got a very important goal for us.

"I think it's an important goal in terms of salvaging something from the season.

"It's been a tough week and when you feel as if you've been champions for a period of time and sustained success like we have done, you're always looking for more of it.

"I'm self aware that success has to be earned and we haven't earned this year as we haven't been the best team.

"Credit to Larne, Tiernan, Kenny and all the staff and everybody around the infrastructure as they've been coming for a number of years now.

"The only question was 'when'?

"It may have come a little bit sooner than what they envisaged at the start of their journey but all credit to them.

"We will congratulate them and look forward to the game next week.”

Coleraine looked like being the team who would break the deadlock in the second-half as Andy Scott’s goal bound effort was somehow kept out by Chris Johns.

The defeat means the Bannsiders have now only won twice in their last 13 games in all competitions as boss Oran Kearney looks ahead to the end-of-season European play-offs.

"On the way the game had gone and all aspects of the performance, I thought we had a real go particularly in the second-half,” he said.

"It was just unfortunate that we couldn't get the breakthrough or the goal that we felt we deserved.

"The players came in dejected as results are obviously important as well.

"The key thing is and we said it before the game that we are stuck in between as we have different injuries and suspensions.

"We still want to remain competitive in these games but we've got to keep our eye on the big one which is the play-off at the end.

"It's important we use these games to get players who need to be topped up and also we get the good performances we want."

COLERAINE: Deane, Kane, McKendry, Carson, Farren, O'Donnell, O'Mahony, McDermott, Shevlin, Scott, Devine (Lynch '46 mins).

Subs Not Used: Gallagher (GK), Mullan, McCrudden, Fyfe, Carlin, Gaston.

LINFIELD: Johns, Roscoe, Shields, Callacher, Millar (Quinn '83 mins), McClean, Clarke, McKee (Devine '62 mins), Finlayson, Fallon (Mulgrew '75 mins), Vertainen (Lafferty '75 mins).

Subs Not Used: Walsh (GK), Haygarth, Annett.

Referee: Lee Tavinder