Larne stretch lead with victory over Glentoran

Larne stretched their lead at the top of the Sports Direct Premiership with victory over Glentoran at the Oval in midweek - and could open up a 13 point gap on nearest challengers Coleraine with a win at Linfield on Friday night.

Gary Haveron's men defeated 10 man Glens 4-1 at the Oval thanks to two goals from Paul O'Neill, a Chris Gallagher effort and a rare Tomas Cosgrove 15 minutes from full-time.

At the same time, Linfield, who also had a man sent off, struggled to a scoreless draw away at Carrick Rangers who move a point away from basement club Glenavon.

In the only other game, Joe Gormley came off the bench to score a late equaliser in a 2-2 draw with Ballymena United at the Showgrounds in what was United goalkeeper Sean O'Neill's final game as a player. 

What it all means is that the Inver Park men are now firmly installed as favourites to lift the Gibson Cup for a third time in four years, especially with a game in hand over their Showgrounds rivals.

All Bannsiders fans will have one eye on events at the national stadium on Friday night as Linfield look to salvage something from what has been hitherto a disappointing defence of the title they won so convincingly last season.

Less than 24 hours later, Ruaidhri Higgins and his players will attempt to keep the pressure on the league leaders when they welcome Crusaders back to Ballycastle Road for a second time in a week.

Last Saturday, the hosts produced a strong second half performance to dump the Crues out of the Irish Cup following the dismissal early in the second half of defender Brendan Hamilton.

Back to back games against the same opposition are never easy but Coleraine will be confident of maintaining their impressive record against Declan Caddell's team this season.

They have won all three meetings of the teams this campaign - twice in the league at Seaview and last weekend's cup game - without conceding a goal whilst scoring 10 at the other end.

That, however, will count for little this weekend.

Also on Saturday, Glentoran will hope to respond to the Larne defeat when they travel to face lowly Glenavon but they will be mindful of their most recent visit to Mourneview Park which ended in a shock defeat.

In the other games, Bangor host Portadown, Cliftonville welcome Carrick Rangers to Solitude while Ballymena United, minus Sean O'Neill, travel to Stangmore Park to face Dungannon Swifts.