Larne go into Tuesday night’s Larne Vs Bangor fixture with a bit more momentum, but Gary Haveron has made it clear there is still work to do. After Friday night’s 2-1 win over Glentoran — the club’s first league win of the season — he felt the margin should have been far more comfortable.
That matters because Larne’s league campaign has been delayed by a prolonged European run, and this is now the stage where they need to turn recovery into a run. They could move to within six points of leaders Coleraine, with two games in hand, if they handle Bangor properly at Inver Park.
Haveron wants more control
Haveron’s message after the Glentoran game was not one of celebration alone. He praised the display, but also pointed out that Larne made it nervy in the final minutes when the match should already have been settled.
“It should never have been a 2-1 game,” he said. “It should have been a lot more comfortable than the scoreline suggests. I felt we were the dominant team, on the front foot.”
That is a useful marker for Larne. The performance had the signs of a side trying to reassert itself — tempo, enthusiasm, hunger and a clear desire to win the ball back quickly. Those are the basics Haveron wants repeated, not just against one of the league’s bigger names, but against a Bangor side that will see Tuesday as another chance to frustrate.
He added that Larne “made it a little bit more nervy than it needed to be” but described it as “an excellent display” and said it had everything he wants to see from his team. That is a strong standard to set, especially when the season has not followed a normal rhythm.
Bangor arrive after a testing start
Bangor’s trip to Inver Park comes after they picked up their first league point of the season on Saturday, drawing 1-1 with Ballymena. Tiarnan Mulvenna’s injury-time equaliser secured that result, which at least stopped the early run from becoming even more damaging.
Even so, this has been a difficult campaign for Bangor in their second season back in the top flight. Three defeats already tell part of the story, and the challenge now is to show they can compete for longer spells against a side that is still expected to be in the conversation at the top.
For Larne, that is exactly why this fixture matters. A win would not only build on the Glentoran result, but also reinforce the idea that their slow start was more about timing than quality.
Why this match matters for both sides
Haveron also suggested some outside observers may have expected Larne to struggle after their European campaign. Instead, he pointed to the fact that this group has been successful for a reason, noting that people may have thought they would be “a soft touch” but that the players showed why they have been champions in three of the past four years.
That is the challenge now: to back up that reputation with consistency. Larne have the chance to close the gap on Coleraine, while Bangor are simply trying to settle into the division and avoid letting the season slip away too early.
Tuesday night should tell us a lot about where both teams are. For Larne, it is about turning one good win into a proper response. For Bangor, it is about proving the point on Saturday was not a one-off.
