Uefa Conference League
Larne 1
Shamrock Rovers 4
ABOUT FIVE MINUTES before kick-off a handful of Larne fans walked behind the goal their team would be defending in the first half to unfurl a large Union Jack over 40 seats.
Larne FC was emblazoned proudly across one of the red strips.
They’d have been forgiven for scurrying back over and removing it by the 30th minute.
Their side were 3-0 down to Shamrock Rovers in the Uefa Conference League’s version of an All-Ireland final.
It threatened to turn into a scoreline that might actually be witnessed in Croke Park.
This was a historic victory for the League of Ireland side. The 4-1 win was the first time that Rovers have scored that many goals in Europe since September 1982, a night when Liam Buckley and Jim Beglin were among the scorers in a Uefa Cup tie with Fram of Iceland.
Here the names read Josh Honohan, Johnny Kenny and Graham Burke. The latter netted twice and was the best player on the pitch.
It could have been more given Pico Lopes struck the bar with a header, Kenny had another disallowed for a foul and Darragh Nugent was denied in a one-on-one with 12 minutes remaining.
Larne, the back-to-back Irish League champions, threatened the briefest of comebacks with a goal from Chris Gallagher scored from outside the box three minutes into the second half.
Burke extinguished that flicker of hope six minutes later when he latched on to Joe Thomson’s misplaced pass and then struck low from just outside the box off the post and in.
It’s a win that also earns Rovers €400,000 and, perhaps more importantly given the new league phase format, will be a significant boost to the goal difference.
By full-time Rovers were in seventh place — one of the eight automatic spots for the knockout stages. Dream stuff, and with a thrilling climax to the domestic season still to come over the next 10 days.
This sets them up nicely for that and it was Honohan who got the ball rolling here after just two minutes, calmly finishing first time with his right foot after the ball spun into his path from a deflected Burke shot.
The Rovers forward predominately drifted out to the right where his link-up play with Danny Mandroiu was incisive and a step ahead of anything Larne could deal with.
The Irish League champions were doing their bit for north-south relations here by giving Rovers the freedom of Belfast.
Burke and Mandroiu were marching to their own beat, and Larne were punished for it.
For that opener, Burke swivelled with his back to goal near the halfway line and advanced all the way into the box after Joe Thomson slipped and both Levi Ives and Christopher Gallagher couldn’t get near the Dubliner.
His shot ricocheted off Sam Todd and with the ball spinning furiously Honohan connected sweetly advancing from the left to give Rovers the ideal start.
Kenny made it 2-0 on 24 minutes when Burke again had the coolest head in the place — even if a 3/4 empty Windsor Park was hardly the cauldron it might usually be.
Roberto Lopes kept a corner alive with a header into space and Burke latched onto it near the left corner of the six-yard box, lobbing a cross to the other side for Kenny to nod home.
It was simple and easy, just like the third. A VAR review was needed to eventually confirm that Burke’s flick-on from a Markus Poom corner did not benefit from Honohan fouling Tomas Cosgrove at the back post.
The last touch was off the Larne defender but Burke’s effort was goal-bound.
They seemed bereft at what was happening on their first ever ‘home’ European group/league phase game.
Windsor Park is not their home, of course, and it told.
Rovers had so much space to dictate the tempo and could even afford to wait until the final quarter before introducing Jack Byrne, Gary O’Neill and Dylan Watts.
It was 4-1 by that stage, Burke adding that fourth and final Rovers goal on 54 minutes when Gallagher had found a way through a few moments earlier.
By the end, the 1,600 travelling Rovers supporters had exhausted their songbook and revelled in a win that will go down in the history books.
Larne: Rohan Ferguson; Tomas Cosgrove (Shaun Want 93), Sam Todd, Cian Bolger (captain), Levi Ives; Christopher Gallagher, Joe Thomson (Jordan McEneff 60); Ben Magee (Matty Lusty 74), Dylan Sloan (Mark Randall 74), Sean Graham; Andrew Ryan.
Shamrock Rovers: Leon Pohls; Daniel Cleary, Roberto Lopes (captain), Lee Grace; Josh Honohan, Markus Poom (Dylan Watts 73), Danny Mandroiu (Darragh Nugent 60), Aaron McEneff (Jack Byrne 73), Darragh Burns (Trevor Clarke 73); Graham Burke (Conan Noonan 66), Johnny Kenny.
