Larne defender Micheal Glynn looking to carry winning mindset into Ballymena United clash

The reigning champions showed their class as goals from Glynn and Andy Ryan secured an opening league victory of the season at The Oval and will be hoping to follow it up when Jim Ervin’s Sky Blues arrive at Inver Park.

Ballymena have the toughest opening month of any top-flight team, taking on five of last season’s top-six in August and have already lost out to both Coleraine and Crusaders, but showed some positive signs in both fixtures under new boss Ervin.

They’ll be without captain Colin Coates after he was sent off for a tackle on former Crues teammate Paul Heatley but Glynn says Larne will be focusing on themselves rather than paying too much attention to the opposition.

"That's a big derby game for us,” he said. “We don't know what they'll be like this season - they've new management and signed well.

"It's going to be a challenge and we will go in with the same mindset.

"We know teams are going to be bringing their A-game against us this year and we're going to have to be at our best to get three points every week.

"If we can look after ourselves and manage our own performances then hopefully come the end of the season we'll be there or thereabouts to challenge."

Tiernan Lynch’s men know the value of consistency and momentum with those two core fundamentals key to their first Premiership title last term.

They were able to put extended unbeaten runs together multiple times, kicking the campaign off without losing their first 10 and didn’t lose a single league match from January 2 until their final match of the season against Coleraine – a span of 16 games.

Combine that with the fact they only lost one 2022/23 home league match, conceding just six goals in the process, Glynn is hoping to gather that sort of momentum once again.

"Momentum is massive in this league,” he added. “We just want to go into every game, put on a performance and hope that's enough to get three points.

"If we want to play, we can play and if we want to fight, we can fight - hopefully that can get us over the line."

After sitting on the bench for Larne’s opener against Dungannon Swifts, 21-year-old Glynn was sensational against Glentoran with fellow left-back Levi Ives playing as part of a back-three alongside Cian Bolger and Shaun Want after Aaron Donnelly failed a fitness test.

Glynn has enjoyed the competition provided by summer recruit Ives but feels Friday evening was a key example of how they can also complement each other.

"He brings a lot of good attributes to the team and I feel like we coupled each other very well,” he said. “Levi has been great since he came in."