'He has school in the morning!' - Gary Haveron full of praise for Larne's next generation after helping start Co Antrim Shield defence in style

In what was the third game in six days for Tiernan Lynch’s side across three different competitions, the Inver Reds chief made significant changes for the Shield opener as they go in search of a fifth consecutive trophy success.

Ambrose Ajala (17) marked his senior debut by netting a first-half brace while fellow youngsters Callum Cowan and Logan Wallace were also in from the start before Logan Graham, Caleb Sweeney and Alex Eakin were introduced off the bench in the 3-0 win.

Three of them – Ajala, Cowan and Graham – were involved in the Larne side that celebrated Harry Cavan Youth Cup success last season and first team coach Haveron was full of praise for their immediate impacts.

"The academy boys were fantastic and a real credit,” he told the club’s media channel. “Caleb Sweeney is 15 - that's why he got interviewed before me because he has school in the morning!

"Him and Alex Eakin are both 15 and did brilliantly, showing real maturity. Ambrose Ajala stole the headlines with two poachers strikes early in the game and showed his sharpness in and around the box.

"That's the icing on the cake...when you make that breakthrough you're just desperate to make an impression and he really did that with the goals.

“Callum Cowan was fantastic at left wing-back and when he moved into centre-half did really well. Logan Wallace showed his potential in being a big centre-half...I don't think he gave the ball away all night and Logan Graham came on in the last 20 minutes and was composed."

With Larne having played four league games less at this stage than assumed closest Gibson Cup contenders Linfield due to their Conference League progression and trips to Azerbaijan, Norway and Slovenia coming up over the next few months, you’d suspect the Co Antrim Shield will slide further down the club’s list of priorities, but Haveron insists they’d love to win it once again.

"We've won it four years in a row and it goes without saying we'd love to win it a fifth, but we'll take each game as it comes,” he added. “We have so many big games coming up over the next couple of months and we'll have to look at each game and judge it on its merits. It's a fantastic one to win and it's really difficult - you can see how tight some of the results were tonight."