We will take Carrick defeat on the chin, says Millar

LARNE forfeited the East Antrim bragging rights on Saturday when they lost to neighbours Carrick Rangers for the second time in eight days, but the rights be returned to Inver Park if Paul Millar achieves his objective of promotion to the Premier League – something he believes is still a realistic goal, despite the Taylor's Avenue setback.

"The bragging rights were certainly won by the Carrick men, but that was not really something that upset me. Our failure to win three precious points was very hurtful, because we definitely need to get back on track if we are to stay in contention in the Championship," admitted Millar.

"It's first time in a long while, certainly the first this season anyway, that we have been beaten in back-to-back fixtures. But I can take nothing away from Carrick because they were hungrier and, on the balance of play, performed better than us over the ninety minutes.

"It was a bit annoying also that we got back to 2-2 with ten minutes to go and then conceded another bad goal to lose everything.

"In hindsight, Carrick obviously learnt more than we did from the match the previous Saturday in the Intermediate Cup – and that stood to them. It was perhaps unfortunate that the league game came up so quickly after that cup match.

Full story in this week's Larne Times