Ballkani coast to victory over Larne at Solitude

Larne 1 Ballkani 4 (Ballkani win 7-1 on aggregate)

Shea Gordon of Larne with an aerial challenge on Almir Kryezziu of Ballkani

It was always going to be a mission impossible.

Battling Larne’s European journey ended in the north Belfast gloom of Solitude – it was perhaps not totally unexpected.

Tiernan Lynch’s boys left themselves out with mountain to climb after crashing to a 3-0 defeat to Ballkani in Kosovo last week.

It left their Europa Conference League hopes hanging by a thread – and that skimpy lifeline was ruthlessly severed by their classy opponents.

Striker Nazmi Gripshi produced two minutes of magic in the first half which ultimately booked his team a third-round meeting with Lincoln Reds Imps from Gibraltar.

And, after the break, substitute Albion Rrahmani piled on the agony, scoring seconds into the second half before Almir Kryezlu struck, after Lee Bonis had pulled one back from the spot.

Although Larne produced a heroic performance at the Belfast venue – Inver Park didn’t meet FIFA standards to host the fixture – a few weeks back, taking crack Finnish side HJK Helsinki to extra-time before going down by only one goal in a Champions League qualifier -- there was little prospect of that happening again.

In fact, the hopelessness of the situation was reflected in poor turnout of home fans, but Larne’s consolation is the fact they banked close on 700,000 Euro from their European travels.

With the start of the Sports Direct Premiership looming, Lynch obviously had one eye on Monday night’s opener against Dungannon Swifts at Inver Park, opting to leave two key players kicking their heels in the grandstand – Leroy Millar, Shaun Want – while Micheal Glynn dropped to the bench.

Defender Ali Omar was drafted in for