Larne’s history-making and ground-breaking season in Europe has seen them go to Latvia, Kosovo, Portugal, Norway and Slovenia with the final continental trip of the year taking the Irish League champions to Azerbaijan.
When the Inver Park outfit qualified for the League Phase of the Uefa Conference League, the phrase ‘glamour stages’ was bandied about but it wouldn’t have seemed that way to the players when they met up at 6.45am on Tuesday morning in the freezing cold in Larne to travel by coach to Dublin airport on the first leg of their long journey for a match on Thursday against Dinamo Minsk.
Yes, Minsk is in Belarus but in 2022 Uefa declared that teams from that country would have to play their home games at neutral venues with no supporters in attendance which means that unlike in their previous European matches this season, Larne will have no fans roaring them on.
The ruling from European football’s governing body was seen as a sanction for Belarus being involved in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
It impacted the Northern Ireland national team in their 2024 Nations League campaign with Michael O’Neill’s side having to play their ‘away’ match versus Belarus in Hungarian town Zalaegerszeg in October.
Larne are going much further to face Minsk.
They have become used to flying on chartered planes on Wednesdays for their Thursday games in the Conference League but because of the time required to reach Azerbaijan, Tuesday was designated as the travel day for new manager Nathan Rooney and his side.
Due to the cost of chartering a flight, which would have been well north of £100,000, the Inver Park side opted to go commercial this time around.
In Dublin airport the schedule was to take off around 11.00am for a flight to Istanbul in Turkey which is three hours ahead of Northern Ireland time.
After spending some time there, the next stage was to fly to Baku in Azerbaijan, which is a further hour ahead with Larne expected to arrive at around 2.00am in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Sure, it’s a football team off to play an important game in Europe and all the excitement that goes with it so sympathy will be in short supply but nevertheless it’s still a gruelling trip. How they recover from it will be key to their performance come match night.
To add to the travelling while Larne will be based in Baku, Thursday’s match takes place in the Mehdi Huseynzade Stadium in Sumqayit approximately an hour away from the capital.
The match versus Minsk may kick-off at 5.45pm UK time but that will be 9.45pm in Azerbaijan meaning Larne should finish just before midnight.
If there is lots of injury time there is a possibility the fixture could start on Thursday and end on Friday which is the day they travel home with another early start and again via Istanbul.
Down to face Glenavon in the Sports Direct Premiership on Sunday, the Lurgan Blues have agreed to play that League game against Larne at a later date.
Unless every result in the League Phase of the Conference League goes Larne’s way this will be their final game outside of Northern Ireland in this season’s competition.
They started in Europe back on July 10 losing 3-0 in Latvia to RFS in the Champions League eventually going down 7-0 on aggregate under Tiernan Lynch.
Dropping into the Conference League next came a bye into the third qualifying round and a stunning 1-0 victory over Ballkani in Kosovo courtesy of Matty Lusty’s late goal and while the return at home was lost by the same score, Lynch’s men triumphed on penalties.
In the Play-Off Larne lost 2-1 in Portugal to Lincoln Red Imps from Gibraltar but famously clinched the second leg 3-1 thanks to an Andy Ryan hat-trick to seal a piece of history as the first Irish League club to reach the League Phase where they have had to play their home matches at Windsor Park due to Uefa stadium regulations.
Not unexpectedly they have found it tough going being defeated 3-0 in Norway by Molde and looking completely outclassed in a 4-1 loss to Shamrock Rovers in Belfast. Also at Windsor Larne lost 2-1 to Swiss side St Gallen and after Lynch departed for Derry City there was a 1-0 reverse in Slovenia to Olimpija Ljubljana when coach Gary Haveron stepped up to take charge of the team on the night with Rooney overseeing things.
Rooney will be the boss against Dinamo Minsk and has been bullish about the prospects of Larne putting a point or more on the board in their remaining two matches.
Facing Gent at Windsor next week will be a tough challenge given that the Belgian side are well in the mix to qualify for the knockout stages so Larne’s best chance of doing something is probably tomorrow.
After all, like Larne, Minsk are the only club in the Conference League with zero points from four fixtures. Currently the pair of them are 35th and 36th in the table with the Irish League side at the bottom on goal difference.
For reaching this stage, Larne will receive a whopping £2.6m in participation money. Should they earn a victory another £336,000 will go into the pot with £112,000 for a draw.
It’s worth noting that while the finances are huge, the costs for Larne in this European adventure have been substantial on the back of flights and accommodation.
In terms of glory, prestige and history a win over Dinamo Minsk in Azerbaijan would be priceless.