Invermen end their long league drought

AT long last Larne have recorded their first win in their league campaign with a comfortable 3-1 against Lisburn Distillery.

Kenny Shiels' task was made easier when the visitors had defender Gareth McKeown red-carded after only five minutes but it was striker Mark Dickson who stole the show for the Reds scoring the first and setting up the other two.

Larne took the lead on 19 minutes, when Philip Matthews in the Whites goal failed to hold a cracking shot from Ross Black allowing Dickson to nip in and calmly fire the ball home.

Larne doubled their lead five minutes before the break. Dickson found Gary McCutcheon on the left flank, then spotted Lewis Hamlin's run through the middle and he controlled the ball before sweeping it past the advancing Matthews for a clinical finish.

Three minutes later Distillery were back in the game. Stuart Thompson found Andy Kilmartin on the left and the former Glens man spotted Larne's keeper Alex Spackman off his line and sent a precision lob over the keeper into the net.

Larne made sure of the points three minutes into injury-time when Bertie Fulton got on the end of another Dickson cross to hammer the ball home.

LARNE: Spackman, Handford, Black, Lindsay, McDonagh, Lynch, Fulton, Wilson, McCutcheon, Dickson, Hamlin. Subs. Wright, K Kane, R Kane.

LISBURN DISTILLERY: Matthews, McKeown, Spence, McCann, Buchanan, Thompson, Kilmartin, Dickson, Armstrong, Martin, Murphy. Subs: Hagan, West, Johnston.

Referee: Mark Courtney (Dungannon).