'Excellent' Larne scorer selected for special praise by boss Gary Haveron beyond scoresheet
Larne striker Kevin O’Hara added another Inver Park highlight to his goal tally on Friday – but manager Gary Haveron singled out the scorer for special praise beyond the scoresheet.
The defending Premiership champions bounced back from a road loss to Cliftonville by securing full points and a clean sheet for the second successive home date, with summer signing O’Hara once again on target.
O’Hara, scorer of the sole goal in defeat of Portadown during the previous Inver Park league outing, added to Leroy Millar’s early finish against Dungannon Swifts before Matt Ridley cemented a 3-0 success.
Haveron was quick to highlight his delight at O’Hara’s overall contribution.
"I thought Kevin was excellent...his work-rate, his pressing and closing down,” said Haveron on the official club social media platforms. "The quality he took his goal with...I'm thinking ‘run it in’ and he's taking it early because he backs himself and believes in himself.
"I'm absolutely delighted again for him to be finding the back of the net."
Haveron felt the 3-0 win marked a “back to basics” return which points to a positive way forward.
"I felt it was really, really important that we got back to basics...back to keeping clean sheets,” he said. "Our whole foundation is built on keeping the ball out of the back of the net and building from that point on.
"The work ethic to get back behind the ball and make sure we didn't concede, it was everybody's responsibility.
"The goals that we took, we took them at really good times...we punished them for the mistakes they made and that's maybe what we haven't been doing more recently.”
LARNE: Rohan Ferguson, Logan Wallace, Aaron Donnelly, Chris Gallagher, Mark Randall, Sean Graham, Leroy Millar, Kevin O'Hara, Tomas Cosgrove, Matthew Ridley, Matthew Lusty. Subs: Jacob Carney, Conor McKendry, Paul O'Neill, Ronan Doherty, Jordan McEneff, Dylan Sloan, James Simpson
DUNGANNON SWIFTS: Declan Dunne, Cahal McGinty, Corey Smith, Steven Scott, Andrew Mitchell, Kealan Dillon, Adam Glenny, Jamie Glackin, Paul Doyle, Danny Wallace ,Sean McAllister. Subs: Alex Henderson, John Scott, Tiernan Kelly, Leo Alves, Kris Lowe, Shea Gordon, Junior Ogedi-Uzokwe