Tech up to third spot in table

Manager Johnny Hastings was delighted. “I was critical of the players after losing 4-0 at Newtowne in the Intermediate Cup the week before I wanted a reaction, and we got it, it was a thoroughly deserved win, even if we left it late,” he said.

Orangefield were fortunate to keep their full quota almost right from the off and surely had the challenge on Jack Wharry occurred in anything other than the opening minute, the official could have been reaching for red and not yellow.

Despite playing into the teeth of the biting wind, it was the Tech who opened the scoring on 15 minutes; Chris Keenan running up to score from the spot, after Martin Steele had been upended inside the box.

The East Belfast side, however, cancelled that one out with a wind-assisted strike that sailed over Keenan, before breezing ahead just before the break, cracking the ball low and hard into the bottom corner of the net.

With the wind and incline in their favour, the second-half was only four minutes old before the Tech were back in tandem as Steele showed his mettle at the far post, from a Dylan Monaghan cross.

Monaghan was again the provider as the Tech grabbed all three points just three minutes from time, flighting a cross onto the head of Rab Hunter.

Larne Tech OB: Keenan – Campbell, R Thompson, Hyslop, Hunter – Steele (Hastings), Wharry (Mulvenna), Montgomery, Monaghan – L Thompson (P Thompson), Ward.