LARNE HAVE THE EDGE OVER GLENAVON

Larne defeated Glenavon by the odd goal in five in an entertaining encounter at Inver Park.

Tiernan Lynch's side moved in front after just two minutes when Ben Doherty beat James Taylor with a left-foot finish after being teed up by Navid Nasseri.

Jeff Hughes doubled Larne's lead after a quarter-of-an-hour after the Glenavon defence didn't deal with a corner from the right with the ball falling for the skipper to send into the net.

The visitors pulled a goal back just six minutes later, however, after Peter Campbell was allowed to run through the home defence to get onto a Sean Ward ball and take it past Rohan Ferguson and into the top corner.

Larne restored their two goal cushion later in the first half. Nasseri found Doherty again, he held off Danny Wallace and was able to lay the ball off for David McDaid to tap home from point blank range.

And Larne almost added a fourth moments after that when Mark Randall delivered the ball to Lee Lynch who almost lobbed Taylor only for the keeper to do well to tip over.

Another chance followed early in the second half when Doherty was thwarted by a goalline clearance while, around the hour, Randall went on a long run forward only to see his final effort drop just the wrong side of the right post.

But Glenavon clawed their way back into the game again on 66 minutes when Campbell bagged his second of the afternoon after meeting Andy Hall's corner and squeezing it over the line.

Larne looked to make sure in the closing stages with Andy Scott firing wide from inside the box and, in stoppage time, Ronan Hale just missed out on turning a McDaid cross over the line.

Larne: Ferguson, Kelly, Sule, Nasseri, Randall, McDaid, Doherty, Lynch, Bolger, Cosgrove, Hughes subs Argyrides (not used), Watson (replaced Kelly 46), Hale (replaced Lynch 70), Oluwa (not used), Scott (replaced Nasseri 70), Jarvis (not used), Greer (not used)

Glenavon: Taylor, Stafford, Birney, A. Doyle, Campbell, Hall, Fitzpatrick, O’Mahony, Wallace, Garrett, Ward subs Brown (not used), Waterworth (replaced Campbell 80), Beggs (replaced O'Mahony 80), Harmon (not used), Hunter (not used), J. Doyle (replaced Birney 66), Norton (not used)