Larne solely focused on their own results in European push as newly-crowned champions Linfield travel to Inver Park
Larne manager Gary Haveron is hoping to have several key men back at his disposal as the Inver Reds welcome champions Linfield to Inver Park this evening.
Whilst the Blues have wrestled the Gibson Cup back to Windsor Park after a two-year stay at Larne, the hosts still have a lot to play for as they have a shoot-out with Glentoran for the final automatic European qualification spot.
Whoever finishes behind leaders Linfield in second will guarantee Conference League qualifiers in the summer, with Glentoran currently holding that position by a single point ahead of Larne.
However, Larne know that if they can bank all three points against David Healy’s men then they will leapfrog Glentoran ahead of their visit to Dungannon Swifts tomorrow.
The fixture will incredibly be Larne’s 59th game in a busy season across all competitions and Haveron is hoping that he squeeze the last drop out of his players.
"It's not just 58 games but the intensity of them, especially at the start with the European games,” he said.
"We got dragged into extra-time in some of those games and it mentally and physically takes it out of you.
"It's had its toll on us but the boys have now shown why they went back-to-back league champions and why they are the only team from Northern Ireland to qualify for the group stage of European competition.
"They have shown their credentials at Coleraine last weekend by digging in, being gritty, but we will start preparing for the next one.
"We will have Chris Gallagher back, we will have Conor McKendry and hopefully Jordan McEneff back.
"We came down to Coleraine missing four or five really key players, so hopefully we will have them back for the next game which will freshen us up.”
Haveron insists that his players will solely focus on their own results rather than looking for others to potentially take points off Glentoran in the race for Europe.
He added: "You can only do yourself a favour at this stage of the season.
"You can only look after your own result and that's what we've looked to do.
"We got the three points at Coleraine and we move onto the next one.
"We've got Linfield next Friday night which will be a massive challenge.
"They've won the league and it's still going to be a difficult challenge but one we will be prepared for.”
Larne’s performance at the Coleraine Showgrounds was a disciplined one as they sat in for large spells in the second-half before using their threat on the counter-attack to yield all three points in a 2-1 success.
Haveron stated that they to find a different way to be victorious on the north coast due to the exertions so far this season as goals from Andy Ryan and Paul O’Neill sealed the win.
"We've had a really long season to this point and chasing after teams is probably not the right thing to do,” he continued.
"So you have to be gritty, have the right shape about you, a structure and things like that which I thought we had.
"The structure is what we built from and when they put a lot of men forward, they left spaces at the back which we exploited and we got our rewards.”