Curneen praises committed display as Tech get the job Dun

Larne Tech are gearing up for a daunting trip to take on a Downpatrick side who beat them 6-1 at Dennis Harvey Park last month.
Larne Tech coach, Niall CurneenLarne Tech coach, Niall Curneen
Larne Tech coach, Niall Curneen

Downpatrick have bagged 21 goals in their five home games to date, whereas the Antiville outfit were on the wrong end of another heavy home defeat when they lost 4-0 to Dundonald a couple of weeks ago.

However, the Larne boys got back on track last weekend with a 4-0 win at home to Dunmurry Rec.

Tech coach Niall Curneen told the Times: “It was a far more committed, more workmanlike performance and that’s the way it’s going to have to be every week. Conceding 10 in two home games suggests that we’ve been too wide open at times, we’re going to have to be harder to break down and some players are just going to have to work harder.

“It’s going to have to be a case of grinding out results and taking our chances when they come – and against Dunmurry, we were clinical.”

Getting that Dundonald debacle out of the system did help once a Dunmurry defender, under pressure from Josh McAllister, headed Scott McNally’s teasing corner into his own net after just 57 seconds.

McNally had an even more pivotal role in the Tech’s second, with an early 25-yard strike into the bottom corner after Lee Thompson had nodded on Keith Wilson’s long punt.

Number three arrived just before the break; Thompson once more the provider, unselfishly squaring the ball for Josh McAllister to scramble in, having pounced onto a defensive miscalculation.

It was down to a 10-a-side contest with a Dunmurry man and Josh McAllister sent off by the time substitute Keelan McAuley rounded things off when he found the bottom right-hand corner.

The margin could have been wider, with Niall McAllister and McAuley both having plausible penalty appeals turned down by the official.

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