Larne's Tomas Cosgrove relishing big night in Europe for Inver Park fans
Tomas Cosgrove is expected to tick off another landmark in life as a Larne player tonight when he walks out for a first taste of Champions League football at Inver Park.
Now five years on since that summer switch from Cliftonville, Cosgrove stands as the longest-serving player currently on the Larne books and holds his own particular place in Inver Reds history as the first captain to lift the Gibson Cup thanks to that 2023 glory.
Pitch issues prevented Larne from celebrating that first step into Champions League football last season at home but he should tonight take part in another major moment thanks to back-to-back domestic title triumphs setting up another opportunity on the big stage.
However, the fairytale will kick off under the shadow of Larne having lost 3-0 to RFS in Latvia during the Champions League first qualifying round first-leg tie.
"It will be unbelievable to play that first Champions League qualifier at Inver Park,” said Cosgrove on the club’s official social media channel following that Riga setback. "We know what it's like to play in front of a big home support who will get behind us and ramp up the pressure on the other side."There was a brilliant support out in Riga and all the players were so thankful for them travelling out there for the game."We know whatever happens we will have another tie in Europe.
"But we want to hit the ground running, we know we need to do that if we are going to do anything in Europe this year."
He added, with a view to preparations towards turning the tables on RFS: "It will be up to Tiernan (Lynch, manager) and the coaching staff as to how we approach the second leg now."After last week's game they may have seen something from the bird's eye view that they had out there."It's football, anything can happen. Look at what Liverpool did to Barcelona a few years ago.
"They were able to do that so who knows?”
Cosgrove will be keen to learn from the painful lessons of the first leg.
"Yeah they're obviously a really good team,” he said. “They are halfway through their season and it was our boys’ first real competitive game."We are disappointed as although they are a good team we feel we handed them the goals."I just think we didn't show our true self out there.”