Second goal in as many games 'confidence booster' for Sloan

Larne midfielder Dylan Sloan said he was delighted to celebrate signing a new long-term contract with the club by scoring his second goal in as many games in Friday's 2-0 win over Cliftonville at Inver Park.

The 20-year-old doubled his side's lead on 79 minutes after earlier pressurising Reds defender Luke Conlan into turning the ball into his own net for the opener in the first minute of the second half.

Sloan was also on target in the champions' 3-1 away win at Crusaders on Tuesday.

"Tuesday was my first goal in about a year or so and now I've scored again so that will get my confidence up," the 20-year-old told BBC Sport NI.

"Performance wise I thought we did well in some ways, and we had to dig deep.

"Cliftonville had decent possession during the game, but I thought we controlled it off the ball as well so hopefully we can kick on from here."

The victory over Jim Magilton's side moved the back-to-back champions into fifth in the Premiership table ahead of Saturday's programme of five fixtures, the first time they have occupied a position in the top half this season.

"We've been lacking quality at times the last couple of months but we have scored five in the month of January so far so we will just have to take that onto the next game.

"We have a lot of games in hand and we have to realistically go into those and win all of them if we want to win the league for the third time in a row.

"Linfield are well ahead so we still have a lot to do but hopefully we can catch them."