Gary Haveron challenges Larne to use Conference League pain as fuel for another Irish League title bid
Larne manager Gary Haveron has challenged his players to use the pain of their Conference League play-off exit as motivation with full focus now turning towards another Premiership title charge.
The Inver Reds were stunned on Thursday night as their tie with Lincoln Red Imps turned in a shock five-minute spell at the end of normal time – the visitors struck twice to cancel out Larne’s two-goal advantage before Montel Gibson was sent off.
Haveron’s men were dealt a further – and decisive – cruel blow in the dying seconds of extra-time when Manu Toledano converted a spot-kick to seal victory in a clash worth at least £2.7million.
Larne set themselves up for another Conference League shoot-out by progressing through the Champions Path of European qualification after claiming their third Premiership title across the past four seasons last term.
While Thursday’s tie ended in revenge for the Red Imps, who were beaten by Larne at the same stage two years ago, Haveron is clear his side need to channel their immense disappointment into “fight and resilience”.
"It’s a kick in the teeth to be so close, but you always have to have perspective in everything that you do,” said Haveron. “Nobody's died, we will get up tomorrow and get back to work.
"We will have to dust ourselves down and we'll have to use this as motivation.
"We’ve had eight unbelievable (European) games to prepare for the Irish League campaign ahead of us – you're never going to get that level of competition week after week after week (in the Irish League).
"We've had a great time bringing our fans and people around Europe, I'm disappointed we haven't kept that going for a bit longer.
"But we just turn that disappointment into fight, we turn it into resilience, we turn it into how we're going to bounce back from it.
"That's what we'll aim to do, we'll aim to bounce back.
"At the start of every season, every team sets out to win the league – if that's not your ambition and aim, you shouldn't really be in the league.
"We know how hard it will be, how difficult it will be, but this game shouldn’t define us or our European campaign.
"I'm really disappointed that it's ended in the way that it has, there were high hopes coming into the game – it's just the way it has turned out.”