'It's our job to turn this around' - Larne boss Tiernan Lynch still holds UEFA Conference League belief after first-leg defeat in Portugal
Tiernan Lynch insists Larne have “nothing to lose” going into next week’s UEFA Conference League play-off second-leg against Lincoln Red Imps at Inver Park, where they’ll be looking to overturn a one-goal deficit from the opening match in Portugal to write their name in the Irish League history books.
The Inver Reds took a deserved early lead through Matty Lusty’s thunderbolt which was eventually confirmed to have crossed the line by VAR, but the Gibraltar champions bounced back as Kike Gomez and Spanish defender Joe struck before half-time.
Lynch’s men were more than a match for the Red Imps, who have previous experience of qualifying for the Conference League group stages, and will enter Thursday’s showdown with confidence after a positive showing at the Estadio Algarve.
Progression would mean Larne become the first-ever Premiership outfit to book their spot in the group stages of European football – banking a multi-million pound windfall in the process – and Lynch says it’s now on his side to take that step next week.
"We've nothing to lose at this stage,” he told the club’s media channel. “We have to go and give it a go and see where it takes us.
"When we came back from Ballkani at 1-0 it was only half-time and it's only half-time again. There have been plenty of times at Inver Park where we've been losing 2-1 and it's our job to turn this around now."
Reflecting on the match, Lynch added: "It was probably a game of two-halves. We're hugely disappointed with our first-half performance and the goals that we conceded after going 1-0 up, but I thought we were much better in the second-half, we were much more dominant...unfortunately we didn't create the chance to get us level.
"We probably should have built on (Lusty’s goal) and unfortunately we didn't. We conceded stupid free-kicks to let them back in the game.
"You come to places like this and you're not always 100% sure what you're getting. You have to be cautious in how you set up, especially away from home. We didn't look like ourselves in the first-half and in the second-half looked more like ourselves - we were a bit more aggressive in our press, we were better in possession, but I would have liked to see us work them more in the box."
Lynch also handed debuts to new recruits Jordan McEneff and Benji Magee, who joined in recent days from Derry City and Loughgall respectively, as both came off the bench in the closing stages.
Ex-Arsenal youth product McEneff almost made an instant impact as within seconds he’d forced Red Imps goalkeeper Nauzet Santana into a save and Lynch was delighted with the first showings of his latest signings.
"Both did very well and worked very hard,” he said. “It's not easy to come in only a couple of days ago and we were very specific in our game plans and game model so it wasn't easy to come in so quickly and try and understand everything we were doing, but I thought the two of them did really well."