Worthington the hero as Larne men progress in Cup

John Young netted a last-gasp equaliser to take the game to extra-time and Worthington saved twice to seal their progress to the next round.

The away side started brightly as Niall McGoldrick surged from defence to attack and fire home a powerful shot from an acute angle.

Ballymena replied via a well-executed penalty-corner. And it wasn’t long until the home side edged in front again through a penalty-corner.

Larne hit back with a well-taken goal by Young to level the scores at 2-2.

The Braid men responded again in the early stages of the second-half, adding a third after some confusion in the Larne rearguard.

The local side contained the Ballymena pressure through the most of second half, whilst hitting the home side on the counter-attack.

In the dying moments Larne piled forward in search for a dramatic equaliser and Young dually delivered with an outstanding shot, clipping inside of the top corner of the goal setting up a period of extra-time.

With no further goals scored the game went to penalty flicks. Larne’s stopper and captain, Jason Worthington, was the hero saving two of Ballymena’s attempts. All of Larne’s takers calmly fulfilled their duties from the spot.

Larne are now in the hat for the second round draw which will be played on November 19. The squad can take great heart in their determined and resilient comeback in a hard-fought game leading up to their Sussex’s Cup semi-final this Sunday against PSNI at Stormont with a 1.30pm push-back. A coach will be leaving from the Kiln from 11am for both players and supporters.

Larne: J. Worthington (c), L. Newell, D. Haveron, G. McAllister, A. Russell, S. Cummins, J. Young, A. Higginson, J. Higginson, N. McGoldrick, M.Haveron, R. Hamill.