Scale of Limavady United's Irish Cup win over Larne's history makers not lost on Paul Owens
The scale of Limavady United's win over Larne dawned on Paul Owens after he was reminded of the opposition's recent achievements.
The Roesiders produced one of the upsets of the fifth round of the Irish Cup when they dumped the reigning Premiership champions out of the competition.
Ruairi Boorman's 115th goal gave Owens' side a famous win over the Invermen and the Limavady boss admitted the Iver Park side's recent historic success in Europe made is own team's victory over them even more astounding.
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"We're a Championship club who are striving to reach the Premiership," he said. "This shows the potential of the club when we are producing performances like that against a UEFA Conference League side.
"Someone reminded me this morning that they just beat Gent, so it is a huge day for the club. I think it was fully-deserved. There has been a hell of a lot of sacrifice over the Christmas period.
"We've been in every two days. We've had a good run of form which has obviously helped but that is a real reward and sacrifice for all the hard work. There was nothing in the game, which was brilliant for us and Ruairi getting the goal in extra-time, the scenes were brilliant."
Larne boss Gary Haveron was far from happy with his side's performance but he did think his side should have been awarded a first half penalty when Conor McKendry went down in the box. "There are no excuses. Limavady were hungrier and they played the conditions much better than we did. We got what we deserved," said Larne's head coach.
"I don't think anyone in the ground thought it was anything other than a penalty. We didn't do enough in the final third. We have missed three massive chances with the last kicks of the ball, but it shouldn't need to get to that stage. The urgency should be there from the beginning of the game."
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