Larne players told to "keep believing in the process" in Irish Cup triumph over Linfield

Kyle McClean put the Blues ahead on the stroke of half-time before Lee Bonis levelled and with nothing splitting the two sides over 120 minutes, it was left to a dramatic penalty shoot-out to decide the contest.

In a carbon copy of last month’s County Antrim Shield final, Larne held their nerve to set up a quarter-final against H&W Welders with Bonis scoring the decisive spot kick to secure a 4-3 victory.

Larne coach Gary Haveron felt the Inver Park outfit “were the better team” and deserved their spot in the last eight.

"I'm delighted for everyone at the club,” he told Larne’s YouTube channel. “It's an unbelievable experience sending the fans home happy.

"I felt that we were the team in the ascendancy and created the more clear cut chances in the game.

"It was disappointing to come in 1-0 down at half-time when we put in such a good performance, but I felt the boys were superb in the second-half and created lots of chances and limited them to very little.

"There's a wonder save from them right at the end to deny Lee Bonis. I felt we were the better team in the 120 minutes and we're delighted to be in the next round."

Larne had failed to score in three of their last four matches going into Saturday, including last weekend’s league stalemate against Newry City.

That was of no concern to Haveron, who is confident the goals will start flowing if they keep creating the number of chances they currently are.

"The lack of goals has been one thing but it's not like we haven't been creating chances,” he added. “We've been putting balls into dangerous areas.

"The gaffer spoke a lot this week about believing in the process and the process is working. We're dominating games in terms of possession, putting balls into dangerous areas and creating chances.

"While that continues to happen, we will keep believing in what we do every day and how hard we work during the week to get results and that was testament today."

Larne now face a trip to the Welders, who navigated their way past a second Danske Bank Premiership side on Saturday by beating Glenavon at Mourneview Park.

Tiernan Lynch’s men have five league matches to play before that as they aim to keep their title challenge on track, but Haveron is excited by the prospect of their quarter-final clash.

"You have to respect everybody that's still in the cup and they are here on merit,” he said.

"As a Premier League club, you're always looking a team outside your division so a Championship club is obviously a benefit.

"Ideally you'd be playing at Inver Park but we will take a big crowd to the Welders. They've a fantastic new setup with a 3G pitch which we are well used to, so we look forward to that."