Tiernan Lynch issues simple message to his Larne players ahead of title showdown with Linfield

Tiernan Lynch has a simple message for his Larne players ahead of their crucial clash with Linfield - "we haven't won anything yet"!

The Invermen are in the driving seat as they bid to secure back-to-back Irish Premiership titles. Last Tuesday night's dramatic conclusion at both Windsor Park and The Oval give Lynch's men a three-point lead with two games to play, but the Larne boss insisted they still had a job to do.

"It was such an emotional game [against Glentoran] and an emotional ending," said Lynch. "We probably got a bit carried away with our emotions at the end so we had to calm down and regroup. It's not over and we haven't won anything. It was three points and that's all it was."

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Larne's late win over the Glens was matched by Linfield last-gasp draw with Coleraine, and even though they weren't at their best Lynch praised his players for keeping going. "It just summed up the highs and the lows in the space of 30 seconds," he said.

"It probably wasn't a great performance by us. I thought we probably chased the game a bit in the second half and lost our way a bit in terms of our calmness and composure. But as I said to the players, the one thing we did have, and they reaped the rewards for it, they never gave up. If we had lost that belief and desire that wouldn't have happened so great credit to the players."

It was an eventful night for captain Cian Bolger on his return from injury as he scored an own goal before delivering the cross which Johnny Russell put through his own goal for the winner.

"I felt really sorry for Cian because he probably was about 75% fit, but he made sure that he played," said Lynch. "To think that you were maybe going to draw 1-1 because of an own goal would have been hugely disappointing for everybody so that made it for it at the end.

"You always get that one final chance, sometimes they fall for you and sometimes they don't, thankfully it did for us."

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