Gary Haveron feels Larne 'gift-wrapped the game' for Dungannon Swifts despite 'clear foul' for first goal
Larne interim manager Gary Haveron felt his side “gift-wrapped the game” for Dungannon Swifts after a slow start cost the Inver Reds an opportunity to go top of the Premiership table at Stangmore Park.
Haveron’s men arrived in Co Tyrone on the back of a seven-game unbeaten league run and having registered six consecutive clean sheets, but they fell behind after 19 minutes when Tiernan Kelly poked home his maiden Swifts goal – the first Larne had conceded since August 19.
Things went from bad to worse moments later as Kealan Dillon doubled Dungannon’s advantage – his deflected effort sailed into an empty net after Junior had caught opposition goalkeeper Rohan Ferguson in possession.
There was a controversial moment in the first half when Larne striker Matty Lusty went down in the penalty area while attempting to round Declan Dunne, but appeals were waved away and the forward was also not booked.
While Haveron felt there was contact on Lusty, he was more frustrated by a “clear foul” on Dan Bent in the build-up to Dungannon’s opener.
"Well, the first goal, the boys were telling me it's a clear foul on Dan Bent,” he said. "Dan Bent goes up to win the ball and he gets pulled back, he's laying in a heap on the floor, so whenever you don't get a decision like that.
"I need to see it back, but I'm going off what the analyst has seen. He said he's clearly been pulled back and it's a clear and obvious foul.
"Then you don't get the penalty decision up the other end, but we compounded our mistake with another one. We gift-wrapped the game for them, letting them go 2-0 up so early in the game.
"We emptied the bench, we tried to have a go, and even when we did get the chance to get back into the game, Mark Randall comes on to hit the ball and one of our own players gets in his way.
"It looked like an easy enough chance to score...it probably summed up the performance.
"The conditions weren't great but we never helped ourselves at all. We put ourselves under pressure from the get-go by overplaying in the wrong areas.
"We were second best in the first half and we gave them the advantage, then they had something to defend and hold on to.
"As much as we huffed and we puffed, we didn't really do enough to get back into the game.”
One major positive for Larne was the return of Leroy Millar, who registered his first league appearance since April 2024, while Aaron Donnelly was also back from a lengthy suspension.
The Premiership’s competitiveness was on full show across Saturday’s schedule with Bangor defeating Coleraine, and Haveron is well aware of the strength of Northern Ireland’s top-flight.
"It's one performance since way back in the start of the season,” he added. "We've been very, very good since we started back, going back to the performances we had in Europe as well.
"We've only conceded two goals from August – if you concede two from August, you're not a bad side.
"It was a poor first half performance and we put ourselves under pressure.
"Coleraine lost today against Bangor, it shows you what a competitive league it is. Anybody can beat anybody. Dungannon have won their last couple of games, they're starting to pick up a bit of form after having a slow start to the season. They're a very good side.
"We didn't underestimate them in any way coming down here. Conditions were tricky to play in, there's no two ways about it, but they defended much better than we did.
"They dealt with things much better than we did and were hungrier to keep a clean sheet more than we were – that's the biggest disappointment.”