Tiernan Lynch delighted as Larne seek European ‘Bonis’

The front man has hit the ground running after swapping Shamrock Park for Inver Park back in January.

Another brace against the Bannsiders on Friday helped Larne kick off the post-split fixtures in style, and Lynch said anyone who questioned Bonis’ ability to make the step up has been given their answer now.

“I don’t know who was asking the questions about Lee, it certainly wasn’t us or we wouldn’t have done what we did,” said the Larne boss.

“I think maybe some were wondering if he could come and do it at this level under pressure every week.

“The lad is an absolute joy to work with, he’s just so hungry and wants to learn and get better and a pleasure to be around.”

Victory over Coleraine was Larne’s first in five league games and Lynch was pleased to see his side produce a result and performance at a key stage in the season.

“We badly needed that tonight...we badly needed the performance as much as anything,” he said.

“We’ve been below par the last number of weeks and it has hurt a lot, especially the players.

“We know we’ve let ourselves and the fans down. We just needed to grind out one result, and to get that performance on top of the result probably made it even sweeter.

“To be fair we have been very unfortunate in a number of games.

"When we played Coleraine up there we had a great performance on the night. We were 1-0 up, hit the post in the 92nd minute and they went up the pitch and scored.

"The exact same thing happened here at Inver against Glenavon.

“We were 1-0 up late on, Ben Doherty went through and hit the post and then they went up and equalised.

“That just knocked the stuffing out of us and we had to literally reset.

“About a week ago we gave the boys a couple of days off but great credit to them they came in and got going again.

“Nobody wants it more than they do.”

Whilst Larne were celebrating bringing their home league campaign to a close in impressive fashion Coleraine boss Oran Kearney was just happy to be a game closer to getting some of his star names back.

The Bannsiders boss’ hand was forced in terms of formation and selection due to his threadbare squad but he says they just have to grin and bear it until they get numbers back again.

“I think no club and no team will ever go through a spell where you don’t get hit by injuries, suspensions and everything else that goes with it,” said Kearney.

“For us this season, if you’re being honest, we’ve been fortunate for the majority of it in that way.

“Since the League Cup final, and if you look at the teams we’ve been able to field and even the benches we’ve been able to have since then, it’s frustrating in that we’re wanting to prepare and that we’re wanting to get up to speed and really really ready to go for these play-offs.

“But we have to be patient to try and get people back onto the pitch, get suspensions cleared up and everything else.

"Probably when we went one or two down tonight it showed and it’s great experience for the likes of young Lewis Tosh to get game time but it also becomes a tough experience as well for him and everyone else when you go 2-0 down.”