Gary Haveron hails Rohan Ferguson for spot-kick speciality as Larne win Charity Shield

The Inver Reds sealed success in the curtain-raiser at Inver Park after both teams cancelled each other out in rainy conditions across 90 minutes.

Coleraine controlled large spells of possession in the opening 45 minutes and missed several big chances to take the lead, with the hosts much better after the restart with Mark Randall seeing a spot-kick saved with 15 minutes to go.

The fixture would then be decided by penalties with Ferguson producing heroics to deny efforts from Matthew Shevlin, Ben Doherty and Jay Henderson as Larne won the shoot-out 3-2.

“People go, ‘oh, Rohan is studying this and doing this and that’ but he will look at it, maybe at a glance, but he does wait and see what the player does and then goes.

“He's very, very good at reading them, body language and everything else.

“He was actually on the fifth penalty, so he's raging he didn't get to hit it.

“He scored a couple in Europe for us and he was brilliant. He hits the ball so clean, as you see with his distribution, so he's maybe going to be our number one penalty taker next year.”

Haveron conceded that his side were largely second best in the first half but things improved with the introduction of five substitutes on the hour mark.

He reflected: “It was probably a little more intense than I would have liked it to be given the fact that we've got a game on Tuesday.

“I think in the first half, Coleraine were the better side. They had more possession without really hurting us overly. They got in behind us a couple of times and we defended it well in the moment.

“We had a couple of wee half chances but nothing of really any note. Obviously, we were always going to change it and empty the bench with players.

“I think they made a really good impact, we were a much better team in the second half, and we finished the game much stronger.

“We created all the chances in the second half of any real note. But all in all, it was good for both teams and it wasn't really about the result.”

The fixture marked Coleraine’s second outing of pre-season and Higgins was delighted by what he saw from his players.

“Honestly, I was thrilled a bit through the players,” he beamed.

“It didn't look like it was our second game of pre-season.

“First half performance, in and out of possession, was exceptional.

“We should have been three up at half-time had we been a wee bit more clinical…and then when you look at who wasn't on the pitch, it gives you great optimism going forward.

“It confirms that the first three weeks of pre-season, that the work they've done physically has been top-notch.

“We retested them, physical testing, during the week and a lot of them have got so much fitter, even in that short space of time.”