David Healy's Linfield drive to 'peg them back' as he congratulates Larne on title

A 1-1 draw at Windsor Park between the top two teams in the country has left Larne three points clear of Healy’s Blues heading into the final fixture but with a significant goal difference advantage.

As a result, Larne leaving Belfast last night without tasting defeat has allowed the Inver Park outfit to face Saturday with title celebrations the focus.

For Healy, his short-term sights were on the minor margins which proved so costly – and future ambitions to wrestle back control of the Gibson Cup.

​”The league outcome certainly wasn’t decided on the game performance tonight,” he said. "I don’t want to be too critical – we’ve an Irish Cup final coming up – but we shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times over the last three or four months."

He added: "I was delighted with the players tonight.”

Healy offered praise to Larne.

"Congratulations to Kenny (Bruce, Larne owner) and Gareth (Clements, Larne chairman) – two good guys who have brought a new dimension to the football pyramid in this country. And Tiernan (Lynch, Larne manager) and his staff take immense credit for not only being successful this year but backing up being successful last year. Where they are at the minute, a team like Linfield and others are trying hard to peg them back and we’ll certainly be trying to do that going forward.”