County Antrim Shield: Glens prevail on penalties to take Shield win

Glentoran picked up their first piece of silverware in five years as they saw off Larne to win the County Antrim Shield on penalties after a tense shoot-out at Seaview.

The sides were level at the end of 90 minutes, with both goals coming in the final ten minutes of the match, through a stunning Charlie Lindsay strike for Glentoran and an Andy Ryan penalty for Larne.

But it was Declan Devine's men who prevailed in the shoot-out to deny Larne an historic five in a row and earn Glentoran's first Shield win since 2011.

The Glens made most of the early running and had a great chance to go in front in the 11th minutes through Jordan Jenkins.

Christie Pattison’s clever chest pass from a Danny Amos ball was perfectly into the path of Jenkins, who capitalised on the hesitancy of Cian Bolger to poke a shot in that Larne keeper Rohan Ferguson got a big right hand to, to push out for a corner.

The side from East Belfast went close again on 25 minutes when the lively Pattison showed some neat footwork to dance his way into the box on the right. His attempted pass across the six-yard box was deflected out into the path of Cammy Palmer, but his fierce effort took a touch to go behind for a corner.

A few moment later, David Fisher forced a save out of Ferguson from the left, when the forward could have teed up Jenkins, who was in a better position 10 yards out.

Five minutes before the break, Larne almost broke the deadlock against the run of play.

Amos lost possession under pressure from Conor McKendry and that allowed Andy Ryan to bear down on goal. The striker made space for the shot, but he was denied by a combination of Amos and Glens keeper Andrew Mills, who got in the way of Rya’s shot to concede a corner.

Glentoran began the second ha;f as they did the first – on top and looking the most likely to open the scoring.

After losing the impressive James Singleton to injury, they went close just before the hour mark when Fisher got on the end of an Amos corner from the right, but his glancing header flashed wide of the left-hand post. Then on 66 minutes, Amos strode onto a loose ball at the edge of the box, but rifled his left-foot drive inches wide of the frame of Rohan Ferguson’s goal.

They probably should have taken the lead on 72 minutes, when Fisher nodded a deep cross back From Pattison across goal, but Jenkins could only direct his header straight at Ferguson from six yards out when he should have done better.

The deadlock was broken 10 minutes from time in spectacular fashion by Charlie Lindsay.

After fellow sub Wassim Aoucharia had held the ball up just outside the box, a tackle from Larne’s Chris Gallagher sent the ball spinning away from goal.

However, it fell perfectly into the path of Lindsay and the 20-year-old smashed a precision low drive from all of 30 yards that flashed past Ferguson into the bottom right-hand corner to send the packed Glentoran support wild.

But their joy was short-lived as Larne levelled just six minutes later.

Ironically, it came from a Lindsay mistake as his attempted clearance was sliced into the air and straight into the path of Andy Ryan. As the Larne striker went to shoot, he was bundled to the ground by Palmer and Referee Steven Gregg had no option but to point to the spot.

Ryan dusted himself down to send Mills the wrong way from 12 yards and level the tie. Just 90 seconds later, Ryan could have out the holders ahead, but he didn’t get a strong enough contact on Joe Thomson’s cut back from the left and his effort spun wide.

Larne then piled on the pressure, with Thomson forcing a brilliant save from Mills after his powerful shot from just inside the box in the final minute of normal time.

With neither side able to grab the winner, the tie went straight to penalties.

Glentoran scored their first four, but Levi Ives saw his fourt penalty for Larne suoperbly tipped onto the post by Mills. That meant Christie Pattisson had the opportunity to give the Glens their first trophy in five years.

He duly delivered, sending Ferguson the wrong way to spark wild scenes as Glentorn fans flowed onto the pitch.

On th balance of play, it was a deserved win for the side from The Oval, who are still in the hunt for the league title, through to the Sixth Round of the Irish Cup and the final of the Bet McLean Cup.

MATCH STATS

Larne: Ferguson, Bolger (C), Nolan, Ives, Cosgrove, Gallagher, Randall (Thomson 56), Sloan, Graham, Ryan, McKendry (Bayode 56)

Subs not used: Besant, Magee, McEneff, Panayiotou, Wallace

Glentoran: Mills, Russell, Amos, Lyons-Foster, Hvid, Sule (C), Singleton (Lindsay 56), Palmer, Fisher (Aouacharia 79), Jenkins, Pattison

Subs not used: Gyollai, Connolly, Murphy, Douglas, Thorndike

Referee: Steven Gregg