​Nathan Rooney flags up Larne 'big focus' after kicking off as boss with fightback draw

Rooney - the newest addition to the Irish League – had to watch one of the domestic game’s tried-and-tested names add another goal to the collection as Joe Gormley broke the deadlock at Inver Park for Cliftonville inside the opening half-hour spell.

Larne recovered to level when Nolan headed home with minutes left on the clock.

Cliftonville’s problems increased with the loss of Jonny Addis to a second bookable offence in the closing seconds but defending champions Larne finished with a point to kick off the Rooney era.

England-born Rooney arrived at Larne last week via Gibraltar’s FCB Magpies as a replacement for Tiernan Lynch.

”We were pinned back for large periods, especially in the first half – just a couple of the basics we weren’t quite up to speed,” said Rooney on the official Larne social media platforms. "Over the last couple of days the environment’s been really high, really strong and the first eight minutes we actually got a little bit of control of the ball and created two early chances.

"I thought we could do a little bit more in the game...physically we didn’t look anywhere near it today, we’ve got to make sure we recover between the competitions, so that’s going to be a big focus for us.

"I thought for a lot of the game it was five or 10 yards off the play.

"Don’t get me wrong, they (Cliftonville) have had time to prepare for us, we’ve obviously bounced straight into the next game (from Thursday in Europe) so it’s something that we have to look at as a group.

"But the chances came in the latter stages...a couple in the box where we could actually have slid in and got the second goal.

"We just need to impose ourselves...that’s something we’ll look at from a tactical point of view.”

With his assistant manager Gary Haveron stepping up as interim boss for the midweek UEFA Conference League loss in Slovenia against Olimpija Ljubljana, Rooney stepped out in front of the Larne fans for the first time against Cliftonville.

"Me and Gaz (Haveron) had a few days before the game (in Slovenia) to get that plan together,” said Rooney. "We talked about how to stop them (Olimpija Ljubljana) and I thought we looked really solid with that...but obviously we had to give up a lot of space on the pitch.

"Understanding going into this game today as well we probably had a similar approach because of the amount of travelling.

"But that can’t be excuses for us moving forward...for me there’s a lot of quality and we’ve got to take more confidence in terms of the ball.”

Now with that first taste of Irish League life under his belt, Rooney has sights on forward strides.

"I don’t think it’s about being patient,” said Rooney. "There’s lot of pressure on these boys, the expectations are going to be high and you want to back it up and try to get back at the top end of the table as quickly as possible.

"We appreciate the support...we’ve got to give back as much as we can.”