Larne ace looking to play part in creating Irish League history as Inver Reds prepare for UEFA Conference League play-off showdown
Chris Gallagher insists Larne are determined to become the first Irish League side to reach the group stages of European football and they’ve taken “belief” from last week’s dramatic penalty shootout success over FC Ballkani.
Gallagher, along with Joe Thomson, Andy Ryan and Mark Randall, kept his nerve in a flawless set of spot-kicks while Rohan Ferguson saved two from their Kosovan opponents as Tiernan Lynch’s men moved one step away from achieving history.
The Inver Reds will now face Gibraltar champions Lincoln Red Imps with the first-leg of their play-off taking place tonight at the Estádio Algarve in Portugal before the reverse fixture in County Antrim seven days later.
Linfield have twice came within touching distance of making it to the group stages – they were beaten on away goals by Qarabag at the Europa League play-off stage in 2019 and cruelly lost a penalty shootout to Latvian outfit RFS in 2022 having led in extra-time.
Larne successfully defended their Gibson Cup crown last term and have significantly strengthened in recent days with ex-Arsenal youngster Jordan McEneff and Benji Magee arriving from Derry City and Loughgall respectively.
Those additions will further boost the hopes of Lynch’s side and Gallagher admits a seismic triumph over Ballkani, who defeated Larne 7-1 on aggregate 12 months ago, has instilled confidence within the group.
"The Ballkani result gives us massive belief,” he said. “These are the games you want to play in and it won't be an easy game, but with the squad we have there's no doubt we'll prepare well and give it a good go.
"Larne have been clear over the last few years that we want to be the first team to achieve that so we're one step closer now but still a lot of work to be done."
It has largely been a disappointing summer for Premiership teams in European competitions – Crusaders, Cliftonville and Linfield all fell at their first UEFA Conference League hurdles – but Lynch is determined to “fly the flag” for the Irish League with a multi-million pound windfall also on the line.
"We talked about that...I’m one of the biggest advocates of this league, summer football and I think it’s really difficult for our teams to have any kind of success,” he said. “We had a tough summer and European campaign.
"We started that off by getting beaten 7-0 by RFS, but hopefully we can fly the flag for the league and hopefully we can show it’s a very progressive league with lots of good players, lots of good managers and we’re probably better than what we’ve shown up to now.”