Matthew Shevlin strikes late to earn Coleraine a point

After a low key first 45 minutes the game burst into life in the second half with Ben Doherty scoring his third goal in as many games against his former employers since joining the Invermen.

But the Bannsiders responded and finally earned themselves a deserved point in the 94th minute.

Oran Kearney made five changes to the side which drew 1-1 with Ballymena United on Saturday.

James McLaughlin, Lyndon Kane and Shevlin all dropped to the bench with Aaron Jarvis and Adam Mullan missing out completely due to injury.

In came Aaron Traynor, Ronan Wilson, Andy Mitchell, Curtis Allen and Patrick Kelly.

The visitors made only two changes to the side which beat Dungannon Swifts at the weekend with Kofi Balmer and Mark Randall being replaced by Ronan Hale and Lee Lynch.

And the duo made a good impact early on.

It was Lynch who had the first opening inside three minutes but his shot was gathered by Gareth Deane.

Larne went close again on 15 minutes as John Herron fed Hale, but his low shot crashed off the inside of the post.

Hale fired another effort wide of the target before Herron’s low shot was smothered by Dean in what was a largely uneventful first half.

The hosts came out with a bit more intent after the break with a couple of Andrew Mitchell corners forcing Conor Devlin into action to deal with the set-pieces.

The big striker should have done better on 55 minutes after Stevie Lowry and Allen combined to set him up, but he couldn’t steer his shot on target.

Larne responded with Lynch forcing Deane into another save before Jeff Hughes headed the resulting corner over the bar.

The deadlock was finally broken with 19 minutes to go.

Lynch nicked the ball off Rodney Brown before teeing up Doherty to fire home.

The Bannsiders responded and had the ball in the net on 77 minutes but it was chalked off for an infringement on Devlin.

Josh Carson then arrowed a shot past the post from a Shevlin pass as the hosts searched for an equaliser continued.

Lee Bonis had the ball in the net late on but it too was ruled out for offside.

The Bannsiders were pressing right to the end in search of an equaliser with Devlin denying both Shevlin and Carson.

And that pressure finally paid off right at the death as Shevlin was on hand to tap home after Devlin could only parry Carson’s effort into his path.