Late drama as Glens and Larne held to league draws

On a night of last-gasp drama in the Irish Premiership on Tuesday, Ballymena United and Glenavon both managed late 1-1 draws in their respective matches against Glentoran and Larne.

After Christie Pattison had earlier given the Glens the lead earlier in the second half at the Showgrounds, substitute Joe Moore put the Sky Blues ahead shortly before the break.

The Braidmen have won nine of their matches so far, but the second-placed Glens have already won 16 of their previous 16 matches.

Before David Toure reached level one minute into extra time, Tiarnan O’Connor’s early strike appeared to have been sufficient to give Larne victory over Glenavon at Inver Park.

Larne’s draw put an end to a disappointing run of three league defeats where they failed to score a goal. However, the champions were frustrated to concede so late in the game.

Success Edogun had a fantastic opportunity to open the scoring for the hosts at the Showgrounds with a Calvin McCurry cross after latching on to a Calvin McCurry cross, but Glentoran goalkeeper Daniel Gyollai brilliantly saved his point-blank effort.

Before Jordan Jenkins’ closest attempt to break the deadlock just after the half-hour, Jonathan Russell and Joe Thomson both blazed wide of the goal as the visitors grew into the game.

The ballymena United penalty area’s top scorer for this term, Sean O’Neill, made a full-length diving save to his right to send his low right shot past the post.

Cammy Palmer’s performance shortly after the restart was better because he had missed the well-placed target, but the away side didn’t have to wait for the breakthrough.

With a fine finish from Pattisson, the Glens capitalized on a long ball from Danny Amos and a defensive error from Daithi McCallion to slot the ball past a helpless O’Neill from 12 yards.

With five minutes left, the hosts were agonisingly close to scoring when Jenkins and first-placed keeper Gyollai and then Moore were denied a dramatic equalizer.

But Moore was right in the right place at the right time deep into extra time to thwart an attempted clearance and somehow force the ball over the line.

Larne opened the scoring with their first goal in almost 300 minutes at Inver Park as O’Connor put an end to the goal drought that started after his winner at Carrick a fortnight ago.

He was able to find space in the box and prod the ball past Tadhg Ryan as he was quickest to react to Andy Ryan’s scuffed rebound from his blocked free-kick.

While Ryan at his near post and Andy Ryan thwarted him with a first-time effort after being teed up by sub Jordan McEneff, both Dylan Sloan and Isaac Baird both suffered hamstring injuries, respectively, and Ryan did so at the plate.

The visitors, while playing some nice stuff, couldn’t trouble Rohan Ferguson in the first half.

That changed in a big way in the second half as Paddy McLaughlin’s men upped the tempo.

Ferguson kept his record clean by making four or more superb stops. Before the pick of the bunch, he tipped Michael O’Connor’s long-range effort on the post, which he had previously repelled, he repelled Harry Murphy’s header.

Len O’Sullivan and Paul McGovern’s efforts were then thwarted by the home stopper, who should have leveled.