Oran Kearney’s pride in Coleraine players’ mental strength to battle back against Larne

Larne took the lead on two occasions last night at Inver Park off a Lyndon Kane own goal and Jeff Hughes header.

However, James McLaughlin, Stevie Lowry and Bradley each grabbed goals to keep alive the Coleraine trophy ‘treble’ dream.

“I just think it’s a phenomenal effort from the players against a really good Larne side,” said Kearney. “We knew what it would mean for Larne tonight being the home side and that they would be out of the blocks quickly.

“We had a few scares but it looked like we would get in all-square at the break, but all of a sudden we give away a silly free-kick, they score and we’re up against it.

“But credit to the players and, thankfully, over the last few seasons we’ve been involved in big games.

“The big-game mentality is there - there wasn’t any panic, it was quite calculated at half-time.

“The key thing for me was to stay in the game and to make sure everyone had that mentality.

“Credit to the players for the way they went about their business from the first whistle in the second half.

“It’s fantastic and I’m delighted we’re into the semi-finals.

“The over-riding emotion is I’m delighted we’re in the next round, and also in 90 minutes as well, as we have a three-game week.”

Larne manager Tiernan Lynch felt frustrated at a third successive Irish Cup exit to Coleraine.

“We didn’t do the same things in the second half that we had done in the first and we got punished for it,” he said. “We conceded really soft, silly goals and I thought the referee decision for the penalty was very poor.”