Tiernan Lynch praises champions as Larne stun league leaders Linfield at Windsor Park

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Larne's Joe Thomson celebrates his goal during this evening's game at the National Stadium

Midfielder Joe Thomson hit a priceless winner as Larne bared their title teeth at Windsor Park.

This impressive performance by Tiernan Lynch’s reigning champions suggested they have no intentions of relinquishing their grip on the Gibson Cup, which they won for the first time in the club’s history last season.

It was a game of intrigue, lit up with two sensational first half goals. It started to well for David Healy’s boys with Joel Cooper smashing home an early opener, which was wiped out by equally outrageous strike from Mark Randall.

But it was Thomson who stole the show by plundering that winning goal that helped cut Linfield’s lead at the top of the Sports Direct Premiership table to only five points.

It was also the Blues’ first defeat in 11 outings. The last team to beat them? Larne!

Lynch was gushing praise, insisting it was a game his team just couldn’t afford to lose.

Pacemaker Press 111123 Linfield v Larne Sports Direct Premiership Linfield's Joel Cooper skips past Larne's Dylan Sloan during this evening's game at the National Stadium, Belfast. Photo by David Maginnis/Pacemaker Press

“Our aim was always to get three points,” he said “We knew we definitely couldn’t bet beaten because we couldn’t afford to fall 11 points behind in the table.

“We had a rocky start to the game, we conceded early on and we were too far off them. Then, I thought we played some of the best football we’ve played in a long, long time.

“The second half was probably a little bit more of a grind, there wasn’t as much football played, but we showed unbelievable character because pretty much ended the game with only nine fit