By Peter Wilson
Larne were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Warrenpoint Town as Daniel Byrne’s late equaliser denied Larne all three points after Johnny McMurray’s early opener.
January deadline day signing Dylan Mottley-Henry also made his debut for the Invermen, coming on as a substitute late in the second half.
The home side started off the first period very brightly with Johnny McMurray seeing his effort turned away by Gabriel Sava after less than a minute on the clock.
McMurray scored the opener nine minutes later, slotting low into the bottom right corner after Tomas Cosgrove had cut the ball back to him from the right wing.
The rest of the first half was a relatively quiet affair with both sides defending well to leave it 1-0 at the break.
Half-time: Larne 1 Warrenpoint Town 0
In the second half both teams picked up from where they left off in the first with neither side offering very much going forward in the first 15 minutes or so.
Just after the hour mark, McMurray scooped his shot over, having received the ball after some good build-up play from Tomas Cosgrove and Marty Donnelly.
On 67, Ronan Hale’s acrobatic scissor kick from the left-hand side of the area was cleared off the line by Daniel Byrne.
The away side had an opportunity to equalise 15 minutes from time but Brandon Doyle’s 30 yard free-kick dipped just over the bar.
With 10 minutes left of regular time, new signing Dylan Mottley-Henry made his Inver Park debut, replacing Ronan Hale.
Having earlier cleared Hale’s effort off the line, Byrne went up the other way and brought Point level on 81, bundling the ball across the line from Kealan Dillon’s long-range free-kick.
With 86 minutes gone, substitute Davy McDaid could have restored Larne’s lead but he spurned his chance at the back post, seeing it blocked for a corner.
Full-time: Larne 1 Warrenpoint Town 1
Larne:Devlin, Kelly, Watson, Randall (Lynch 68’), Hale (Mottley-Henry 80’), Donnelly, A Mitchell, Cosgrove, Hughes (c), Jarvis, McMurray (McDaid 65’)
Subs not used:C Mitchell, Sule, McKendry, Wade Slater
Warrenpoint Town:Sava, Deasy, Ball, Dillon, McCaffrey (c) (Maguire 67’), Gallagher, Swan, Hutchinson (Doyle 67’), Wallace, Byrne, Evans
Subs not used:Coleman, McVeigh, O’Connor, Carroll, Cowan
Referee:Jamie Robinson
Larne have two back-to-back home games over the next week. First up is Portadown on Tuesday 9 February (7.45pm) before they take on Dungannon Swifts on Saturday 13 February (5.30pm).
