Late Robinson goal gives Larne Windsor win

May 15, 2021 | Archive

Tiernan Lynch’s men ended Larne’s 45-year wait for a win at Windsor Park – thanks to Josh Robinson’s late goal in a 2-1 victory.

The Invermen were good value for their win against the league leaders, who were aiming to wrap up the title on the day.

Ronan Hale fired Larne into a second half lead, but were pegged back by an impressive Niall Quinn goal late on. However, Josh Robinson popped up with an even later strike to earn all three points.

Larne settled into the game well and had the first opportunity of the day on 14 minutes, when Mark Randall drove forward from midfield and brought a good save from Chris Johns low down to his left.

Josh Robinson thought he had a strong appeal for a penalty on the half hour, after going when trying to get his shot away from a Larne corner.

Linfield’s first chance of note came three minutes before the break, with Shayne Lavery shrining the offside trap on the left, cutting in before firing over the bar, with Mark Stafford heading just wide from a corner shortly afterwards.

Conor Mitchell kept the game level eight minutes into the second half, when he superbly saved from a Lavery header at point blank range.

Larne took the lead with 58 minutes on the clock. The ball broke to Randall outside the box and his deflected half volley was saved by Chris Johns, but Ronan Hale made sure he was in the right place to fire home the rebound from 10 yards out.

Mitchell was on hand once more to keep Larne in front on 72 minutes. After an unusual incident where Robinson took teammate Randall out of the game with a mistimed tackle, Lavery was through on goal for Linfield but Mitchell stood up tall to deny the striker one-on-one.

The Blues did find a breakthrough on 86 minutes with a special goal. From a corner the ball broke to Quinn, and he found a half a yard to lash home an equaliser into the bottom right corner of the net.

Larne didn’t sit back however, and took the game to their hosts once more. On the stroke of 90 minutes Lee Lynch’s corner on the left was headed on by Albert Watson, with Josh Robinson taking a touch before firing home at the back post.

The victory keeps Larne in touch with the top three, ahead of this week’s Sadler’s Peaky Blinder Irish Cup semi-final against Crusaders.

Linfield: Johns, Stafford, Haughey, Callacher, Stewart, Millar, Lavery, Fallon, Mulgrew, Quinn, Cooper
Subs Moore, Newberry, Waterworth, Manzinga, Nasseri, Clarke, Pepper
Larne: C. Mitchell, Watson, Robinson, Herron, Sule, Randall (Lynch), Hale (McDaid), Mottley-Henry (McMurray), Cosgrove, Hughes, Jarvis
Subs: Donnelly, Scott, A. Mitchell, Wade Slater
Referee: Ian McNabb

 

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