Larne out to build on their trophy success

The penalty shootout win over Glentoran on Wednesday night meant Jeff Hughes was the first Larne captain to lift a major honour since 1987.

It was fitting the midfielder scored the winning spot kick against the Glens, but he sounded out a warning to his team-mates that it would be back to work as usual after the game.

“We’ll enjoy the moment, but it’s on to the next game,” he said.

“Our immediate focus will be on our next league game.

“The gaffer will have us back in, going through our shape.

“Winning a trophy with Larne is something on a different level for me personally.

“I was thrilled to hit the winning penalty, it worked out nicely for me, but I think the real hero was Conor Devlin, who saved the spot kicks.

“He dug us out when we needed it.

“I was just hoping the penalty would go in.

“I knew where I was going to put it.

“The last penalty I hit, I went to the top left and missed.

“That was for Fleetwood Town against Chesterfield.

“So, I made sure I hit the target.

“It was relief when it went it.

“I remember the 2005 Irish Cup final (for Larne) and how bad I felt when Portadown went up to lift the trophy.”

Larne welcome a Glenavon side to Inver Park today buoyed by recent performances.

They put Crusaders to the sword at Mourneview Park last week and boss Gary Hamilton was full of praise for his players and the mood in the camp

“Clubs like ourselves cannot go out and spend fortunes on players so we have to go about our business in other ways,” he said.

“The changing room at the minute is excellent - back to the mentality of when winning Irish Cups and getting into Europe.

“We competed last week against Linfield down there and felt very hard done by then today played Crusaders and dominated from start to finish.

“We went to Glentoran earlier and competed with them with 10 men for 60 or 70 minutes and nine men for part of it.

“Coleraine at home we felt we should have had a penalty to beat them.

“These are the top sides we are talking about.

“Let’s not make any mistake about it, we would not have been doing that last year.

“So it’s pleasing we are competing and matching these teams in games.

“It shows we’ve the right characters in and that’s something I’ve always prided myself on.

“It’s not always the best players in the world but the right characters.

“Certainly the character at this minute in time is what I want it to be and what I want it to resemble in the type of team I want to build.”