Larne maintained their two point lead at the top of the Bluefin Sports Championship with a 3-1 victory at the Limavady Showgrounds.
The Invermen’s comfortable two goal lead was cut in half with five minutes remaining, before David McDaid’s penalty made sure of the points.
With the game only beginning to settle down, the Invermen almost found themselves a goal behind, when a short backpass was rescued by Conor Devlin’s save on the edge of the penalty box.
From this Larne broke forward at pace, with Marty Donnelly curling home from the edge of the box to give his side the lead with just 13 minutes on the clock.
At the other end Devlin was called into action again, making a smart double save, firstly from Stuart McMullan’s header and then Jonny Hume’s follow-up.
Darren Stuart and Jeff Hughes came close to extending the lead, but both side’s went into the break with just that Donnelly goal to separate them.
Larne began the second with more purpose and had a chance to double their lead on 58 minutes, when Darren Stuart was fouled. Despite protests the trip was outside the box referee Declan Hassan pointed to the spot.
Home stopper Paul Wells made amends however, by producing a smart save from Marty Donnelly’s penalty.
It was a short reprieve though, as Donnelly’s resulting corner was headed home by Patrick McNally for his first goal for the club.
Most of the play was in Limavady’s half from this point on, however the visitors were unable to carve out too many meaningful goalscoring opportunities.
Then, with five minutes remaining, Limavady were back in the game when Larne failed to clear their lines sufficiently, and Hugh Carlin was on hand with a smart finish from the edge of the box.
With the Invermen keen to run down the clock at this stage, substitute David McDaid managed to wriggle clear of the corner flag before having his surge into the box ended with a foul.
The striker dusted himself down to confidently slam home the spot kick to make it 3-1 in stoppage time, and ensure the unbeaten league start to the season continued.
Limavady United: Wells, O’Kane, Gareth McFadden, McMullan, Boyle, Carlin, McCauley (Duffy), Gary McFadden, O’Connell (Pomeroy), Hume, Doherty
Subs not used: Devine, McGurk, Brown
Larne: Devlin, Sule, Finnegan (McEleney), Kelly, Stewart, Donnelly, Stuart (McDaid), Tilney (Hassin), McNally, Cosgrove, Hughes
Subs not used: Dougherty, Osei-Bonsu
Referee: Declan Hassan
