WATCH: St Gallen fans march through Belfast on route to UEFA Conference League clash with Larne and pay visit to historical Northern Ireland city

The Swiss side were granted permission to march from Bradbury Place to Donegall Avenue by the Parades Commission with an estimated 1,500 taking part before setting the atmosphere with an array of chanting and flag displays inside the stadium.

They cheered their team on to a 2-1 victory over reigning Premiership champions Larne, who took an early lead through an Abdoulaye Diaby own goal before Lukas Gortler and Hugo Vandermersch struck back for the visitors to secure their first Conference League victory of the season.

Earlier in the day a number of fans also made the trip to Bangor, which turns out to hold a special place in the history of St Gallen, a city in Switzerland.

Gall, who was born in the year 550, was a disciple and one of the traditional twelve companions of Columbanus and studied under Comgall of Bangor Abbey before travelling to Switzerland.

The next visiting team to Northern Ireland will be the supporters of Belgian top-flight outfit KAA Gent, who face the Inver Reds at Windsor Park on December 19 – a fixture which could potentially round out Larne’s Conference League involvement.

Reflecting on the St Gallen defeat, Tiernan Lynch said: "I’m hugely proud of the players for the effort they put in.

"We let ourselves down against Shamrock Rovers and it wasn’t a true reflection of us as a team or league.

"Our job tonight was to put that right and show there’s more about us and I feel we did that.

"The other side is we are hugely disappointed we couldn’t hold on and there were moments leading up to their second goal where we could and should have done better. It’s a learning curve for us and hopefully it will stand by us.”