LARNE................................................1

DERGVIEW..........................................0

BY TOMMY NETHERY

A LAST-minute deflected shot denied a luckless Dergview what would have been a deserved share of the spoils on their first ever visit to Inver Park on Saturday.

With the seconds ticking down to the final whistle and a resolute visiting defence absorbing the best the Larne attack had to offer, lady luck cruelly intervened to send the Castlederg outfit home empty-handed.

With one final throw of the dice, marauding left-back Alan Reid cut in from the left and unleashed a shot that deflected off centre-back Darren Crozier and into the top left hand corner of James O'Reilly's net.

It was a crushing blow to a travelling Dergview team that had defied the odds and matched a home side, certainly in the second half, who last year was mixing it with the likes of Linfield and Glentoran in the Premier League.

The performance though will have given new caretaker boss David McAskie reasons to be cheerful as his side enters a crucial period in the run-up to the new year. Next week last year's Carnegie Division Two champions take on Rosario YC in the first round of the WKD Intermediate Cup before hosting Killymoon Rangers in a must-win league encounter, which could also mark the first ever IFA Championship game to be hosted at Darragh Park. On Saturday it took the visitors some time to get the long journey out of the legs with Vincent Sweeney, on loan from Cliftonville, and Damian McLaughlin testing visiting custodian O'Reilly in the opening exchanges.

Sweeney also looped an effort onto the crossbar before Dergview posed any significant threat, striker Andy McFarland drilling inches over from 18-yards and centre-back Colin Robinson drawing home netminder Brian Neeson into an excellent save with a sizzling 30-yard daisy-cutter.

The first half ended as it began with Larne on the attack and Aaron Arkinson was in the right place at the right time to hack an Anthony Lagan hea der off the goal line.

Larne, too, started the new half in the ascendancy with Lagan slicing wide, in the wake of an exquisite through ball by Damien McLaughlin, who moments later was beaten to the ball by the razor-sharp O'Reilly.

Having survived that early assault, it was McAskie's charges that upped the ante, the visitors' best period of the game announced by a 16-yard snap shot by Gareth Sproule that fizzed narrowly wide of the target.

Shortly afterwards, Sproule and Ryan Pritchard combined to create a glorious opening for McFarland, whose stinging effort forced Neeson into a stunning full-stretch stop to his right. And on 63 minutes McFarland headed a cross back across the six-yard box but, with a gaping goal at his mercy, midfielder Gary Dickson failed by a whisker to forced the ball over the line.

Then came that late assault by Larne. Visiting fullback John Carlin blocked Sweeney's bullet header on the line, Lagan volleyed over from a flighted free kick by Reid before the outstanding O'Reilly thwarted Andrew Dickson. It looked as if Dergview were about to register their first point under the new regime but it wasn't to be as the trajectory of Reid's deflected shot eventually found a way past the Dergview goalkeeper with virtually the final kick of the game.

Teams

LARNE: Neeson; R McLaughlin; Reid; Brown; Moore; Thompson; Dickson; Cleary; Sweeney; D McLaughlin; Lagan.

Subs: Steele; Rafferty; Adams; Dickson; Faulkner.

DERGVIEW: O'Reilly; H Carlin; J Carlin; Crozier; Robinson; Burke; Dickson; Arkinson; Sproule; McFarland; Pritchard (G Lafferty 63). Subs: L Forsythe; J McCaskie; N Coulter.

Referee: R Dunlop (Carrickfergus).