Glentoran looking to beat rivals Linfield to the European punch in dramatic final Danske Bank Premiership weekend

​Rodney McAree’s boys moved to within three points of their cross-town rivals following a demolition of an ailing Coleraine side at the BetMcLean Oval on Saturday.

With only one round of fixtures remaining, the Glens will need to win against in-form Crusaders at Seaview and hope Cliftonville defeat David Healy’s dethroned champions.

Perhaps it’s a big ask. The Blues are still in pole position to grab the lucrative ticket to Europe, but McAree remains optimistic.

Beaming after goals from Niall McGinn, who bagged a delightful double, and Terry Devlin earned his team a thoroughly deserved win against the Bannsiders, McAree said: “The win sets us up well going into our final league game.

“We must go to Seaview to get three points; runners-up position is still within our reach.

"It would be nice to get European football without going through the rigors of the play-offs.

“In my opinion, the best team has won the league, so it’s congratulations to Larne, but we must now challenge ourselves to finish second.

“We’ve given ourselves a chance, but we know we must rely on other people doing us a favour as well...we must hope that other results go our way.”

McAree’s only tinge of disappointment was the fact that his team failed to build on their first half strikes for the second successive week.

“It’s a nice habit to get into," he added. "We probably could have scored more goals in the first half, Junior had two great opportunities that you would expect him to score.

“The goalkeeper also made a last ditch save to prevent Hrvoje (Plum) from finding the net.

"We were pleased with the goals that kind of killed the game.”

The game was held up for a length period in the second half after Coleraine defender Adam Mullan sustained a serious leg injury. He was stretched off the pitch and taken straight to hospital.

“It seems to be a dislocation or fracture of the kneecap, he was in a lot of pain,” said Coleraine boss Oran Kearney. “It was so disappointing for him.

“It’s puts things into perspective when you see an injury like that, but I’m not going to use it as a shield for the poor showing.

"Our first half performance wasn’t acceptable it’s a simple as that; we were three down at half time and the game was over.”

Kearney admitted he had more than one eye on the end-of-season NIFL play-offs, that carries a money-spinning passport to Europe.

“Over the past few weeks we probably haven’t been as strong as we would have liked in terms of personnel,” he added. “In saying that, we should should have been strong enough to put in a better performance against Glentoran.

“We now have the play-offs to look at. We had a few players out because of injury and suspension, but again that’s not an excuse. We need to hit the play-offs with the strongest squad available.”