Larne 2 Cliftonville 1

Friday 3rd November 2023 – The Irish Premier League – Inver Park, Larne

Sitting in 340th place in UEFA’s Rankings, one place about Floriana from Malta, one below Iceland’s Vikingur, you can find Northern Ireland’s current champions, Larne FC. When they lined up in Helsinki for the Champions League First Qualifying Round against HJK in July 2023, it was a remarkable turnaround for a club that five years previously was staring at life in the third tier of Northern Irish football.

The club had been stripped of its senior status in 2008 after they failed to gain a place in the new IFA Premiership as part of the reorganisation of football in Northern Ireland, only getting their licence back in 2016 when they entered the NIFL Championship.

In 2018 the club was purchased by online estate agent Purplebricks co-founder Kenny Bruce. At that time, the club were sitting bottom of the second tier in Northern Ireland, the future looking very bleak with dwindling attendances. The bonhomie created after the national team’s performance at Euro2016 in France had failed to reach the northeast coast. Always the challenger of the norms, Bruce set a vision of bringing European success to Larne. Many scoffed, but five years later, who was now laughing?

After winning the NIFL Championship in 2019 and returning to the top flight just in time for two seasons of COVID-impacted campaigns. But in April 2023 the club beat Crusaders 2-0 to claim their first ever Irish League title and qualify for the Champions League for the first time.

Whilst their European exploits would be over by the end of July, the main objective for the season was the retention of their title. The NIFL Premiership has 4-5 teams who have the resources to win the league including Larne, in third place before tonight’s game and Cliftonville arriving in second place. However, both will have their work cut out catching Linfield who already had an 8 point lead at the top of the table.

Google Maps is a great friend in 99% of situations but when it goes wrong, it really does go wrong. I’m sure there are other routes that it could have suggested from my port-side hotel to Inver Park rather than walking a mile down the hard shoulder of the major arterial road down to Belfast. I took some comfort from the occasion sign, reminding motorists that there were pedestrians on the road.

I survived and arrived at Inver Park scratch-free. The ground is in the shadow of the motorway, on the side of a hill. A stand, half terraces, half seats runs the length of the 3G pitch, with covered, seated stands at each end. Cliftonville had been given the far end of the ground, whilst the young group of hardcore Larne fans made all the noise in the Church End.

The game started at a rapid pace, with tackles flying in from all sides. The visitors came close in the opening exchanges but it was Larne who took the lead in the 9th minute when Paul O’Neill celebrated his new 3 year deal by powering a header home from a pin-point Thomson cross. O’Neill almost doubled the lead two minutes later, but the outstretched arms of Odomosu saved the day.

Larne kept pressing forward, with Randall hitting the bar from distance before they had their second in the 36th minute, Joe Thomson hitting a low drive home from the edge of the box, earning a yellow card for his celebration, deemed “too excessive” by the fussy referee.

The half-time whistle saw an exodus of away fans, having seen enough it seemed but their team came out all guns blazing. However, Larne keeper Rohan Ferguson was in inspired form, and the woodwork saving them in after 70 minutes.

A flurry of yellow cards gave the final few minutes some real edge. It became even more intense when Ronan Hale took advantage a mistake by the Larne keeper, misjudging the bounce on the 3G pitch and slotted it home. But it was too little too late. Three points to the home side, closing the gap with Linfield at the top of the table to five points.

Football over it was time to walk the highways of Northern Ireland again back to the hotel, via a switch half in the memorabilia- clad walls of the Supporters Club bar. A 50th birthday party was underway back at the hotel, where a group of ladies crowded round the entrance, smoking. I avoided the grabbing hands, as Depeche Mode said, and headed to my room, ready to cross the water for a big day tomorrow.