Gary Haveron blasts 'awful state' of Windsor Park pitch as Larne extend Premiership advantage

The Inver Reds may have extended their unbeaten run to 15 games as they chase their third title success in four years, but they owed a debt to goalkeeper Rohan Ferguson, who pulled off three wonder saves late on.

Having already accounted for Coleraine and Glentoran in the two previous games, Larne found the Blues a tough nut to crack – but Ferguson’s heroics ensured they went back up the road with a valuable point.

With the clock ticking down, the 28-year-old shot-stopper somehow kept out a Charlie Allen shot that looked destined for the bottom corner, but the best was yet to come.

He then catapulted across his line to keep out a header from Linfield new boy Darragh Leahy before repeating the act to claw away a header from Matthew Fitzpatrick.

Haveron insisted his boys should never have been in the fragile position.

“Linfield finished the game really strongly; they put the ball in the box and put us under pressure,” said Haveron. “In the end, it took a couple of wonder saves from Rohan to help us leave with the point.

“But for 70 or 80 minutes we were very good. We had three-versus-two on a number of occasions, but didn’t pick the right pass.

“We were sloppy in our final ball...we over hit, we under hit; we took too many touches. We should have taken advantage of those moments.

“Ultimately, we finished up hanging on over the last 10 minutes or so.”

Haveron was also critical of the dreadful Windsor Park surface.

“You always know it’s going to be tough coming to Windsor Park,” he added. “The awful state of the pitch didn’t make it any easier, either.

“It’s dreadful for a national stadium and that’s no slant on Linfield Football Club whatsoever.

“They unfortunately have to play on it as well and I know that wouldn’t suit David (Healy) and his players.

“It’s rock hard; there is no grass and it’s slippy on the surface.”

Linfield manager David Healy believes his boys did enough to win the game.

“We are disappointed not to win the game,” he said. “They were points that got away from us. Larne are in really good form, so we knew what to expect.

“There wasn’t much in the game, for large parts. But in the last 10 or 15 minutes, we potentially should have won the game...Larne were hanging on a little bit.

“Sometimes when you are in a tough moment, where we are at the minute, you don’t get that little bit of luck, or the rub of the green. Credit to the players, they kept going.

“We had to play for 60 minutes or so against Carrick Rangers on Tuesday and a majority of those guys had to go again against Larne.

“It didn’t help when we got a couple of injuries early on (Euan East and Chris McKee were withdrawn in the first half). But the guys that came on, played their part, they gave us that little bit of spark.”