Thursday, September 19, 2024

Northern Ireland Football League: Four Larne fixtures revised because of European run

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Larne’s Irish Premiership game against Crusaders on Sunday has been postponed as part of fixture amendments to their next four Irish Premiership matches because of their Uefa Conference League play-off.

The Inver Park outfit will travel to Faro in Portugal for next Thursday’s Conference League play-off first leg against the Lincoln Red Imps with the home leg taking place a week later.

Larne’s dramatic penalty shootout victory over Ballkani of Kosovo at Inver Park on Thursday night has already guaranteed the club around £850,000, which could be tripled by accounting for the Gibraltar club.

A statement from the Northern Ireland Football League said Crusaders had agreed to Larne’s request for Sunday’s game at Seaview to be postponed. No new date for that game has been confirmed.

Larne’s home Northern Ireland Football League contest with Portadown scheduled for 24 August has also been deferred – following agreement with the Shamrock Park club – with a re-fixture date also still to be finalised.

The same applies to Larne’s derby game at Carrick Rangers which had been scheduled for Tuesday, 27 August.

Larne’s contest at Coleraine set for Friday 30 August will instead be played at the Showgrounds on Sunday, 1 September.

A further fixture revision sees Ballymena United’s game against Crusaders brought forward 24 hours to Tuesday, 20 August.

No Irish League side has previously reached the group stages of a European club competition and NIFL has opted to lighten what would otherwise have been a busy period of fixtures for Tiernan Lynch’s side in and around the play-off tie.

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