Carrick Rangers assistant manager Scott Irvine believes Larne "stole three points"

​Larne’s 61st-minute opener from Andy Ryan – his fourth in as many matches – was cancelled out by Kyle Cherry’s free-kick.

Substitute Paul O’Neill scored moments after replacing Lee Bonis to restore the visitors lead and when the former Cliftonville forward added a second four minutes later to give Larne a two-goal advantage, the game looked over.

Cherry pulled one back for Carrick from the penalty spot in extra-time after Cian Bolger was sent off but it was too little, too late for the hosts and Irvine was left feeling “massively disappointed.”

"I think Larne have stolen three points, I'll be honest,” he told the club’s media channel. “I don't think there was a massive difference in the two teams.

"It shows how far our lads have come and how competitive we are, especially here. I think if I'm in the Larne changing room I'm over the moon going up the road with three points because it was fine margins.

"On Larne's part they will say the first goal is a good goal but we need to react better. We get the game back to 1-1 with a great free-kick from Kyle and that's something we have talked about all week.

"Then there's an incident between that goal and the second goal which is missed by the officials and touching on fine margins, I think it changes the game if they see the incident in our box. I think Larne would have been reduced to 10-men if it's spotted.

"I'm not going to make excuses for the goals - we can deal better with them.

"We changed the system twice and the penalty was just too late to properly have a go at getting an equaliser. We're massively disappointed."

Irvine was full of praise for how the hosts reacted against a side that maintained their six-point advantage at the top.

"It's not in that group (to throw in the towel),” he added. “That group is together and they'll fight for each other.

"They’ll continue to fight and that has been apparent. We can't question the players.

"We asked them for honesty, attitude, commitment - every one of them ticks those boxes. There's no question of the desire to fight for each other."