Haveron praises decisive contribution from Magee

Larne manager Gary Haveron has praised the match-winning contribution of forward Benji Magee, who came off the bench to score a brilliant goal eight minutes from time to secure a 1-0 victory over Glentoran at Inver Park on Friday night.

The moment of individual brilliance from the former Loughgall front man saw him drift away from Cameron Palmer and rifle a low drive past Andrew Mills from just outside the penalty area.

The victory has the Invermen level on points with Coleraine at the top of the table, trailing only on goal difference, but with two games in hand over the leaders.

"It needed something to kick-start the game. It never really caught fire but Benji came up with that moment and that's what he's capable of," said Haveron.

"We know that, we see Benji do that on a regular basis. When you see some of the things he does in training it's no surprise when he pops up and produces that bit of brilliance in the game.

"That was the bit of quality the game was probably lacking. We've had a really tough run of games but 10 points out of 12 from fixtures against Coleraine, Dungannon Swifts, Linfield and Glentoran is a super return by the boys.

"It was always going to be small margins in a game like this so delighted to get three points and we move on."

Haveron was satisfied with the way his side combatted the threat posed by their opponents in the first meeting between the sides this season.

"It's hard to play against the Glens, they're so long and direct and they stretch the game. They press up behind the long ball. That's a style that really works for them as they've got a great striker in Pat Hoban who can hold the ball up and they can get players up around him.

"They've got that very direct style that you've got to combat.

"It's more difficult for us because we're trying to play the ball out from the back, move the ball quickly across the back and play up through the thirds but we lacked that little bit of connection between midfield and attack.

"We got in behind them a couple of times in the first half but we never did the same in the second. We never had that threat. But they asked a lot of questions and we had the answers."

Larne remain unbeaten at home this season in the league, their last hone defat on their own patch coming against Dungannon back in February.

"Keeping this place tight is really key for us. I hate conceding goals with an absolute passion and we're a hard team to break down. We stick at it."

DD: "We have to look at ourselves in terms of not taking opportunities. We've dominated the game against a good side away from home at a difficult venue.

"We've given up one opportunity in the game and we've got punished, yet we've created four or five good chances and not taken them.

"It's a very difficult time for us at the moment because our performances haven't been bad in recent games but our points tally has been poor. There's no shying away from that.

"You can have all the domination that you want but at the end of the day it comes down to having three points in the bag. You've got to put that ball in the back of the net.

"I know we're really close to being a really good side, I think we'll still be in the mix, and we don't fear anyone in the league but we've got to tidy up and make sure we are more ruthless, have more cohesion about us in terms of digging out a clean sheet.

"We can't fall further behind."

"We've gone behind in the last five games so when you give away that first goal it's extremely hard to come away with three points.

"We wanted to send our supporters home happy as they were magnificent for us. The players are distraught because it was a game we didn't deserve to lose."