Larne boss Tiernan Lynch admitted his team showed Shamrock Rovers ‘too much respect’ after crashing to a 4-1 defeat in the UEFA Conference League at bouncing Windsor Park.
It was a night that began badly for the Irish League side and rapidly went downhill after that.
The Inver men were a goal down within three minutes when Josh Honohan scored and then Johnny Kenny added a second before Larne defender Tomas Cosgrove deflected a Markus Poom corner kick into his own net – all before half-time.
Larne did respond after the restart with Chris Gallagher hitting their first goal in the group stage of the tournament until man of the match Graham Burke netted a screamer to seal the deal.
It literally was men against boys after that and a night to forget for the Irish League champions.
“The game was lost in 20 minutes,” said an exasperated. Lynch. “I can’t look for excuses, I won’t look for excuses.
“We lost poor goals and our game plan went out of the window after the first one went in. We struggled to recover from it. It was hugely disappointing.
“It’s not something we can shy away from; we’ve got to take it on the chin. We’ve got to look at it collectively as a group and look at the areas we fell short.
“We showed Shamrock Rovers far too much respect. For 45 minutes, we never got anywhere near them. We let them pop the ball around… we let them get into a party mode with the goals we conceded. It was all uphill after that.”
Tiernan Lynch offered no excuses for Larne’s poor performance
Lynch admitted the wide open spaces of Windsor Park didn’t do his team any favours – Larne were deprived the chance of playing at Inver Park because their stadium didn’t meet UEFA criteria.
“I’m going to be searching for answers,” he went on. “Would I have loved to have got them at Inver Park? The answer is yes.
“We can talk about us not handling the occasion, but you simply can’t afford to conceded the goals we did from set pieces. We were very naïve in certain aspects of the game.
“I thought there were periods we played good football and showed glimpses of what this team is about, and what they are capable of.
“Unfortunately the damage was done before we got ourselves back into the game.
“We had a conversation as a group at half time. We came out for the second half looking better and we got our goal. We wanted a different approach to the game.
“Then we conceded a totally stupid goal that put us on the back foot again. I don’t think it was a night for excuses.
“It was a night for looking yourself in the mirror, me included. I think that’s what this must be about moving forward.”