Larne head coach Gary Haveron believes Tomas Cosgrove will “go down as Irish League royalty” after marking his 300th Inver Reds appearance during Saturday’s 1-1 Premiership draw with Coleraine.

Cosgrove was one of the first headline signings made by Kenny Bruce when he took over at Inver Park, joining from Cliftonville in 2018 and has went on to play a key role during a historic period at Larne.

The 32-year-old captained the County Antrim outfit to their first-ever Premiership title and was a top performer as Tiernan Lynch’s side defended the Gibson Cup last term.

He also wore the armband in Larne’s maiden Conference League outing as they became the first Irish League club to qualify for the European competition earlier this season and scored the winner in their famous victory over Gent.

placeholder image — Tomas Cosgrove celebrated his 300th Larne appearance in their weekend draw with Coleraine. (Photo by Andrew McCarroll/Pacemaker Press)

Cosgrove has been a model of consistency and reliability during his time at Larne, cementing his spot as one of the Premiership’s best players over recent years, and still has a big part to play having signed a new long-term contract in December.

"Tomas will arguably go down as Larne's greatest ever signing for the level of consistency he has shown throughout his time here,” Haveron told the club’s media channel. “To rack up that amount of games is some achievement.

"He bought into what was happening at Larne from the very beginning and he's an honorary Larne man now living in the town and we keep him going about that a little bit!

"He's really engrained himself in what it was that Kenny wanted to build and he has been an incredible stalwart for us.

"His level of performance doesn't seem to be dropping. He's so consistent and he will go down as Irish League royalty because of the consistent levels he has produced over the years."

Cosgrove’s milestone was recognised ahead of kick-off with a framed Larne shirt donning ‘Cosgrove 300’ presented to him by chairman Gareth Clements and Head of Football Nathan Rooney.

On the pitch, Andy Ryan’s late strike cancelled out Matthew Shevlin’s opener for Coleraine, but Haveron was left feeling that his side deserved more.

"Two points dropped,” he reflected. “The game was there to be won.

"I thought the boys were so good, especially in the first half. The second half we let them creep into the game a little bit but there's only one team looking to win the game at the end.

"It's bitterly disappointing we haven't came away with what we probably deserve.

"They showed great character and togetherness because when things don't go your way it's easy to hide a bit, but they never did that.

"They came out fighting and they got what they deserved with the goal.

"Our only disappointing thing is we haven't capitalised on the chances we had in the areas of the pitch we got in to.

"A little bit of care in the final third and I felt we would have came away with three points, but I can't be critical of the boys.

"Coleraine had a full week to prepare and we're bouncing off a game again on Tuesday where we had to come from behind, dig in and show real character. I'm really proud of the boys."