'We want to give back' - Hometown favourite Gary Haveron in message to Larne fans after Irish League win and clean sheet
Larne interim manager Gary Haveron highlighted Friday’s 2-0 win as a chance to “give back” to the fans following delight at Inver Park over Ballymena United.
Haveron stepped up from a backroom role to serve his hometown club as first-team manager following Nathan Rooney’s shock departure, with Larne officials in the process of searching for a permanent replacement.
Haveron has been tipped by many as favourite for the role on a full-time basis but kept his focus to affairs on the pitch following a 2-0 win secured on home soil thanks to Benji Magee’s early finish and a late Dan Bent goal.
Now three games unbeaten in the aftermath of Rooney’s departure, Haveron celebrated a win in which he praised his “exciting” players.
"I thought we were very exciting,” said Haveron on BBC Sport NI. “We let them creep back into the game, they went long and direct and asked a few questions of our backline, threw men forward and had a go...but we stood really tall.
"We missed a lot of chances but the brilliant thing for me is we created a lot of chances, kept another clean sheet and scored two goals.
"What we should really have done is kill them on the counter-attack with the number of attacks we had, we should have had the game dead and buried.”
A penalty save to deny Ben Kennedy by Larne goalkeeper Rohan Ferguson proved another high point for the hosts.
"It was a poor penalty to give away but Rohan does what he has been doing since the day and hour he signed here,” said Haveron. “He was absolutely outstanding for us and kept the scoresheet as it should have been.
"If we had gone in at half-time drawing it would have been a travesty, given how we played and the football we knocked about in the first half."
Haveron added: "We went two years without defeat at this place so we know what we can do here.
"We know how important Inver Park is and our fans and getting them involved in games.
"We want to give back to them.
"We want to be a team that's good to watch and easy on the eye but we also want a team that is full of character and I think that's what they showed tonight."