MANAGER'S VERDICT: Larne manager Tiernan Lynch on 'massive' Linfield win, 'unbelievable goalkeeper' Rohan Ferguson and task of managing quality squad

On it being a big result for Larne

"Massive, massive. We talked about it during the week that even a draw was no good for us today, which is utter madness when you think that’s only our third game into the season.

"It’s probably the first time in a while where we got to have a four-day lead into a game and we got a lot of really good work done. There’s still a lot going on in this team and squad because you’ve so many games...we play Tuesday again, Friday, Tuesday, Friday – trying to juggle that, we as a group, both management and players, have been talking about how these are unknown territories for us and unknown seas we’re sailing in.

"We’ll probably make mistakes like we do at times, but it’s about how quickly we can find a sweet spot and today I thought for that team...we weren’t dominant from start to finish but I thought we were solid.

"At times we played good football. I don’t think it’ll be one of our best performances of the season but it was very resilient. A new back-three again and I took full responsibility for the game at Coleraine because I made too many changes.

"I apologised to the players on Monday morning that it was too many changes at once. I was conscious of playing on Thursday night in Europe and everything that went with that. We’ve learnt from that, reflected on that and I thought today we got it right.”

On that resilience and holding Linfield at bay during period of pressure

"No matter how good you are, I don’t think any team is going to come to Windsor Park and get it all their own way against one of David Healy’s teams – that’s not going to happen.

"We knew that would be the case. The one thing you do have to do here is when you get chances you have to take them because you don’t get that many. I thought our performance could have been better at times and we could have been better in possession at times...I thought we forced it a little bit, went longer a bit more than we needed to, but that was a new back-three with George (Marsh) in there playing holding midfield which is quite new to us.

"We have to get them games...if we’re going to deal with what’s coming our way we need to get everyone up to speed quickly and it’s not an easy team to come in to. We try to play a very specific way and all that goes with it, so that takes time. I was delighted with them today.”

On if there was any stage looking at the league table if Larne regretted not playing their league games

"No, definitely not. I don’t think we’d have been as fortunate as we were in Europe if we’d played games in between. They were massive games as far as energy was concerned.

"If we’d tried to force other games in there, physically and mentally I don’t think we would have coped.”

On Rohan Ferguson

"The kid is an unbelievable goalkeeper. He’s arguably one of the best passers in our team and at times he plays like a centre-half for you.

"Between the sticks I thought he was superb. I probably have to take responsibility (for Ferguson’s mistake earlier this season) with how we play and you have to reflect on those and change very quickly.”

On if it’s about trying to stay in touching distance in the league with Europe coming up

"I think we’re probably looking at it slightly differently in that the league is your bread and butter and you have to stay in the hunt. We know our backs are against the wall now because Linfield have had such a good start and it was probably a situation of catch us if you can.

"Fair play to them. We have to make sure we show that resilience and stay in the fight. I’ve only glanced at some of the teams we’ll be playing in Europe...what we have to look at it is how do we go and do the league proud and show as best we can we can compete at that level.

"I don’t think there’s a huge amount of pressure on us to win those games...there’s definitely pressure on ourselves to make sure we give ourselves every opportunity to try and win the games.

"We have to enjoy those periods. We worked tremendously hard over the last eight years to get there and it’s important we embrace those moments.”

On that goal doing Conor McKendry’s confidence the world of good

"We were very specific in bringing someone like Conor McKendry into our team. When we reflected on last season we felt we were very one dimensional...we had lots of legs and energy but when teams got deeper against us we didn’t necessarily have players like Conor who can open the door for you single-handedly.

"Conor has probably been impatient at times because when you go to Europe nine times out of ten you’re without the ball and Conor wouldn’t be known for his defensive duties – he gets the ball and makes things happen.

“That’s what we’re trying to do – build a team and squad that can challenge in the league, can go as far as we can in cup competitions and give a good account of ourselves in the league and Europe.”

On the challenge of managing the squad and picking right times to bring players in

"The truth is it’s very hard. Sometimes it forces you to overthink games and it comes between me and my sleep if this is the right thing to do or if this or that happens.

“We don’t actually have that big of a squad – we’ve 21 players – but it’s probably the quality more than the depth that makes you question if you’re making the right decisions here and there and keeping everybody on board is a difficult thing to do because there’s so many good players that want to play every week.

"They are a very good bunch, work extremely hard and we’re now trying to challenge them to see if we can become more professional and can we look for another five percent on and off the pitch.”