Gary Haveron feels Larne’s strength in depth “was the difference” after his side extended an unbeaten Premiership run to 17 matches with a 4-2 victory over Crusaders.

After going 2-0 up inside 32 minutes at Seaview, it appeared the league leaders would stroll to another triumph, but Crusaders roared back into the contest through Harry Jewitt-White and a superb Fraser Bryden volley.

Moments after Bryden’s memorable strike, Haveron turned to his bench with Conor McKendry, Matty Lusty and Benji Magee all introduced.

It had a devastating impact with Lusty running clear to finish after a poor defensive mistake before McKendry provided a lofted cross which Paul O’Neill expertly headed home to seal maximum points.

placeholder image — Larne manager Gary Haveron after Saturday's league win over Crusaders. (Photo by David Maginnis/Pacemaker Press)

Larne remain eight clear of Coleraine at the summit with 12 matches left to play as they look to collect a third Gibson Cup crown across the past four seasons.

"At 2-0 we had the game in the palm of our hands,” reflected Haveron. “The only disappointment was we didn't score more.

"Leroy's (Millar) gone through, Paul's gone through. We've missed chances. We maybe should have had this game buried after 35 minutes.

"But the penalty decision, for me, it's harsh. I think the initial foul is on Tomas (Cosgrove). He certainly feels that he's ushering the ball out and the boy goes through the back of him.

"There's no complaints that he's pulled him to the ground because you can see he did, but the initial foul was on him.

"I’m disappointed we didn't react when Ro (Ferguson) saves the penalty, we didn't follow in on it.

"At half-time I felt this game should have been out of sight.

"Second half they come out and it's a wonder strike by Fraser Bryden. I really hope he's OK because he's a talented, talented boy.

"It's an absolute wonder hit and that can happen to you and you can panic in that moment at 2-1, but we never panicked and we've got strength and depth in our squad and we use the strength in depth that we have.

"Matty Lusty comes on and runs away from the centre-half, he can do that to anybody. Conor McKendry produces a great cross and Paul O'Neill hung up there for a fortnight.

"At the end of the day it probably looks a little bit more comfortable because at 2-1 it was a bit nervy, but in saying that, we missed another three or four chances after that and could have put a bit of gloss on it.

"Ultimately our strength, depth and quality coming off the bench and the strength of our squad and our team was the difference.”

Saturday marked only the second time this season that Larne have conceded two goals in a Premiership match – the other coming in a 2-0 loss to Dungannon Swifts, which remains their last league defeat.

"I said to them, ‘don't panic, it can happen.’, added Haveron. "For all our dominance, not to dominate the scoreboard, that was where we sort of let them off the hook a little bit.

"We should have been more dominant on the scoreboard, we could have had it out of sight.

"We've gone through with Leroy and Paul and we somehow haven't managed to score a goal to go three up and at that point, it's a long way back for them – I don't think they would have come back from that but we left it in the balance.

"We never panicked. We've got really good, composed players able to put their foot on the ball, to keep playing our football, to keep creating opportunities, and we got the joy in the end.”