Red card changed outcome of game - Larne boss Haveron
Gary Haveron praised his players despite the heavy defeat at Inver Park
- Published
Larne manager Gary Haveron says the first-half dismissal of Dan Bent was the key moment as the Premiership leaders fell to a 4-1 home defeat by Coleraine.
Matthew Shevlin gave the Bannsiders an early lead before Bent was red-carded by referee Jamie Robinson on 35 minutes following a challenge on the Coleraine striker.
Andy Ryan levelled with a penalty for Larne, who were beaten by the Bannsiders in Saturday's Irish Cup semi-final, before second-half goals from Ben Wylie, Will Patching and Shevlin secured a comfortable win for the visitors.
Glentoran's 2-1 win at Cliftonville saw them narrow the gap to Larne to three points with three games left.
"We obviously didn't start the game well, going 1-0 down after 90 seconds," said Haveron.
"After that it was a quite an evenly matched game but the sending off absolutely kills you because you're down to 10 men against a really top side, when you've just played 120 minutes on Saturday.
"I need to see it back again but there is no real clear footage of it. Their bench was screaming and yelling at Jamie Robinson and he makes the decision.
"We battled hard to get it back to 1-1 and great credit to the boys, they showed heart and desire.
"I just felt we ran out of steam and they over-ran us at the end. Big decisions change the outcome of games and we've been on the wrong side of that tonight."
