Tiernan Lynch urges his Larne squad 'to embrace' leading the table

The Inver Reds currently sit first in the league on goal difference and also have a game in hand on Cliftonville, Linfield, Crusaders and Coleraine as the race for the Gibson Cup continues.

Larne returned to the summit last Friday night as a first-half brace from Leroy Millar and Lee Bonis’ finish sealed a 3-0 win against Glenavon at Inver Park. However, there is a concern over Millar, who had to be removed at the interval due to injury.

"We talk about it quite a lot - big games, big names,” Lynch said. "Leroy was probably going through a bit of a lean patch and you saw it in his demeanour, he needed a goal.

"He got back on the goal trail with two wonder strikes.

"I'm really pleased for him because he's just the most honest, hard-working kid in the world.

"I'm glad to see him back amongst the goals again.

"We're not sure about his knock at the minute.

"There was a bit of swelling at half-time and Leroy wanted to play on.

"It was like at The Oval a few months ago he had a gash on his head but he wanted to be taped up and play on.

"We'll not know yet if the swelling means something or if it's just an impact injury.

"Like Leroy and the rest of the group, Lee is honest and hard-working.

"He works his socks off and chases everything.

"He was very unfortunate for a couple of weeks when he got himself in good positions but the ball wasn't going into the net.

"He got his goal last week and another one on Friday night, I'm really pleased for him.”

Larne are currently in the midst of a busy schedule in both the Premiership and Samuel Gelston’s Whiskey Irish Cup, with Lynch aiming to keep ‘within touching distance’ of all the other title contenders heading into the business end of the season.

"We have a difficult couple of weeks coming up with four games in 10 days or so,” he added. "There's plenty to play for but I'd prefer to be here than in another part of the table, we have to embrace it and enjoy it.

"We can't ask any more of them in terms of work ethic, how they train and how they perform. We'll see where it takes us.

"We just want to be involved in it.

"Our job is to make sure we're in the mix and within touching distance, who knows what happens after that.”

The Swifts were beaten 3-0 by Crusaders at the weekend but boss Dean Shiels was thrilled to see the return of Dean Curry from injury.

"Dean was outstanding considering he hasn’t played in four or five months,” Shiels told Dungannon Swifts TV. "I thought he was superb against Ross Clarke, who is a tough opponent.

"Caolan Coyle was another who I thought played well as he also hasn’t played much football.

"Individually, we had a lot of players who didn’t deserve to lose as they worked hard and gave everything for the team."