Nathan Rooney was relieved to pick up a point in his first game in charge of Larne after seeing Ryan Nolan bag a late leveller against Cliftonville at Inver Park.
Following his watching brief in Thursday’s 1-0 defeat to Olimpija Ljubljana in Slovenia, Rooney officially took the reins for this one and saw his new side struggle for large spells.
Joe Gormley’s goal just before the half hour mark gave Jim Magilton’s side a deserved lead, which they held until two minutes from time when defender Nolan nodded in his first goal for the reigning Champions.
It came after a late charge from the home side, much to the frustration of the visitors who lost Johnny Addis to a late red card and now slip to seven points behind leaders Linfield.
Rooney was quick to admit Larne were far from their best, as he looks for solutions to help the Invermen climb back into the top half of the table.
“We were pinned back for large periods, especially in the first half and there were just a couple of basics that we weren’t quite up to speed with,” he said.
“Physically we didn’t look anywhere near it in this game to be honest, so recovering between competitions is going to be a focus for us
“For a lot of the game we were probably five to ten yards off the play. Cliftonville have obviously had a long lead in to prepare and we’ve bounced from one game to the next, but it’s something we have to look at as group.
“The chances came for us late in the game, but we need to impose ourselves on the game a little bit more.”
After a pedestrian start, Magilton’s side carved out the best opportunity of the contest thus far on 20 minutes.
A trademark searching pass from defender Johnny Addis found Joe Gormley clear of the Larne defence, but the club’s record goalscorer could only fire straight at Scottish goalkeeper Rohan Ferguson.
Nine minutes later, Gormley was in once again and, as expected, this time made no mistake.
A quickly-taken free-kick from Luke Conlan on the right blank allowed Gormley to run off the back of Aaron Donnelly and despite finding himself left with a tight angle he drilled a low shot past Ferguson to break the deadlock.
Rory Hale then threatened with a free-kick before Gormley almost had the opportunity to double the visitors’ lead on the stroke of half-time.
A mix-up from Donnelly nearly gifted Gormley a clear run on goal, but Shaun Want came to the rescue with a last-ditch sliding tackle.
It was to prove Want’s last act of the day as he limped off at the break to be replaced by Ryan Nolan at half-time.
If the Larne fans were hoping for more of a spark at the beginning of the second half they were to be left disappointed.
Cliftonville could and maybe should have doubled their lead, with two chances in quick succession early in the new half.
With 50 minutes on the clock, Rory Hale rose highest at the back post to bring a smart stop from Ferguson, down to his right.
The ball was then recycled from the resulting throw-in on the left flank and this time Luke Conlan met the cross with his head, but steered his effort off target from 10 yards out.
New Larne boss Rooney looked to his bench in a bid to turn the game around, having struggled to create an opening for the first 70 minutes of the game.
However, they were to go close twice in the space of 30 seconds. Firstly, Paul O’Neill nodded the ball down to Joe Thomson, but the Scottish midfielder’s effort from inside the six yard box was blocked.
The ball was then worked to O’Neill on the left-hand side of the box and his low ball across the face of the box was tantalisingly close to giving Benji Magee a tap-in at the back post.
With two minutes left on the clock Larne did manage to rescue a point, as two of Rooney’s substitutes combined.
Conor McKendry whipped in a free-kick from the right flank and it found half-time sub Ryan Nolan, who got above Odhran Casey to nod past David Odumosu
To compound Cliftonville’s misery they lost Johnny Addis to two quickfire yellow cards for two late challenges on McKendry.
Larne: Ferguson, Want (‘HT Todd), Donnelly, Randall (’51 Thomson), O’Neill, Graham (’65 Magee), McEneff (’85 Lusty), Bolger, Cosgrove, Sloan (’51 McKendry), Gallagher
Subs: Besant, Todd
Cliftonville: Odumosu, Pepper, Addis, Kearney, Hale (’76 Corrigan), Conlan, Doherty, Gormley (’84 Curran), Glynn, Casey, Steven (’76 Pettifer)
Subs: Ridd, Piesold, Wilson, Madden
Referee: Shane Andrews
Well that’s two points dropped by Cliftonville. They were the better team by a distance, missed several chances to double their lead, only to concede a sloppy goal in the 88th minute.
It was a poor showing from Nathan Rooney’s Larne, but the Invermen deserve credit for fighting until the last kick.
Nope, the full-time whistle is blown
The Reds down to ten men.