Confidence high in Larne camp ahead of Ards test, says Irvine

“It is another massive game for us and the boys have been saying in training how much they are looking forward to it. The week off has done us good and we are really focused for Saturday,” he told the Times.

Irvine agreed that Ards would have been a lot of people’s favourites for promotion.

“No doubt they are among the favourites and are scoring a lot of goals but recent results show we are hard to break down.

“With the togetherness in the squad we will go there confident but knowing we will have to work hard for anything we get.

“The surface at Clandeboye Road won’t be a problem for us, we have been training on a synthetic pitch and we played very well on a similar surface when we won at Armagh.

“It will be a real test of character for us but one we think we can get something from.”

Meanwhile, Ards skipper James Cully says he isn’t at all surprised about Larne’s recent good run.

“I played along with their manager Davy McAlinden and he was an inspiring player. He will have them well set up and expects high standards from his players,” he said.

“It will no doubt be a tough test for us but even though we respect Larne we are expecting to take the three points.

“I have played with Paul Maguire in the Regions’ Cup squad and if he recovers from his injury we know he will be a handful, so it has the makings of a good game.”