Four-goal Larne whitewash nine-man Distillery
Ciaran Murray made it five goals in two games with a brace, while Darren Stuart scored his first Larne goal with Stuart McMullan completing the rout.
“I thought we did OK but it was more economical than brilliant,” was the summary of manager Davy McAlinden. “We got the job done and scored four away from home is obviously a good result.”
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Hide Ad“I thought we didn’t move the ball as well as we can and in the second half we looked after the game. All over the pitch we did really well and when we got the third goal we were able to make changes in the line-up, with Tuesday night’s game in mind.”
Larne took the lead on 20 minutes when Murray pounced on poor defending to walk the ball into the net.
The Reds continued to dominate and doubled their lead on the half-hour. This time Murray was the provider. His driven corner from the left was met with a bullet header by McMullan which gave Whites keeper McBride no chance.
Murray made the game safe 17 minutes from time. His initial shot was blocked but he didn’t give up sending a cracking volley high into the net.
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Hide AdMan of the Match Murray then set up the fourth playing in Stuart for a clinical finish.
The home side had Stuart Thompson and substitute Joe McDonnell red-carded in the final five minutes.
Distillery: McBride, Kirgan, Thompson, Young, Nixon, Kopyt, McIlhagga, O’Connor, Doyle, Smith, Jones. Subs: McDonnell, Southam, Bingham, Kane.
Larne: Connolly, Scott, Smith, McClean, Reynolds, McMullan, King (Stuart 76) ,E.Gillan, Maguire (Lowry 80), Murray (McCabe 80), G.Gillan. Sub’s: not used McCabe, Heggarty
Referee: N. Robinson,