Larne: 'Our performance was nothing short of outstanding', says Lynch despite defeat

Larne boss Tiernan Lynch said that the performance from his side against HJK Helsinki was "nothing short of outstanding, to a man."

The Inver men suffered a narrow 3-2 defeat on aggregate in their Champions League first round tie at after an extra time own goal from Shaun Want.

Despite the painful nature of the loss, Lynch praised his team's display.

"It was a difficult night but we got after them and we showed great bravery and courage," he said.

"I couldn't be more proud of the players over the two legs. I think we're probably kicking ourselves now that we didn't get something from the away leg, but we gave everything we had.

"If we had been a little bit more clinical we could probably have got more from it."

Larne went into the game at Solitude trailing 1-0 from the first leg courtesy of a second-minute penalty by Bojan Radulovic.

The Irish League champions created a number of good scoring opportunities in north Belfast, but their chances of a comeback were dented further when Tuomas Ollila's 26th-minute strike gave HJK a 1-0 lead on the night and a 2-0 lead on aggregate.

The Inver side continued to dominate and got their rewards in the second period with a Lee Bonis penalty and a late Joe Thomson's goal helping Larne level the tie on aggregate and take the game to extra time.

Heartbreak was to follow for the large Larne contingent who travelled to Solitude for the game, with Want unfortunately diverting the ball into his own net in six minutes into extra time.

The Finnish champions held on for the win which sees them move into the second qualifying round, with Lynch left to rue missed chances after fighting back to take the game to extra time.

"We would have played very differently had it not been just our second game and we just didn't have the legs to go and press from minute one here or in Helsinki," he admits.

"But the positives to take from the players' performance was nothing short of outstanding, to a man.

"They're a good side, they have good players, a good pedigree in the Champions League and Conference League and I thought we were a match for them, and more."

Lynch added: "You've got to give the players credit for their 'never-say-die' attitude. They rolled their sleeves up and worked exceptionally hard to go from one down but we had that sucker punch at the end and that was disappointing.

"We take the positives while looking at areas we could, and maybe should, have been a little bit better. That's just part of the process."

Despite the end of their Champions League dream, Larne will remain in European action, dropping down to the Europa Conference League second qualifying round.

They will play Ballkani, with the first leg in Kosovo next Thursday and Lynch hopes that the experience of Champions League football will make his side hungry for a prolonged run in Europe.

"This is what the club has been striving for for the last six or seven years and that has made us hungrier now, we want more.

"This group of players deserve to be on that stage and play on that platform and hopefully we can go and build on this."