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Steven Crawford

'Gordon Banks, that was it right there' - Tiernan Lynch left stunned in title clash

Tiernan Lynch was left scratching his head in disbelief as his Larne side were denied a last-gasp winner against Linfield by a wonder save.

With the game still on a knife-edge as we moved into the final minute of stoppage time Thomas Maguire picked up a loose ball on the edge of the Blues box.

His shot looped off Ben Hall and looked to be heading for the top corner to give the Invermen what would have been a crucial three points in the title race.

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But somehow Chris Johns in the visitors goal managed to get across his line and claw out the deflected effort to earn his side a share of the spoils and leave everyone inside the ground in awe at what they had just seen, and Lynch comparing the quality of the save to Gordon Banks at the 1970 World Cup.

"How Chis saves that in the last minute I'll never know," said a stunned Lynch at the end.

"I'm going to go as far as people talking about Gordon Banks, that was it right there.

"How he got that is beyond me."

Lynch felt his league leaders had the better of what was a tense affair.

And while he was pleased with Larne's performance the one area he felt they could have done better in was in front of goal.

Paul O'Neill was denied by Johns in the second minute and the normally reliable Joe Thomson spurned two good openings after the break as the hosts went in search of the vital goal.

"I thought we were very good, played some great football and when we needed to roll our sleeves up we rolled them up," said Lynch.

"Probably the one area we fell short is we weren't clinical.

"We had three good chances where we should have worked the goalkeeper.

"It's very hard to be critical of the players when they put in a performance like that, it's good criticism I suppose.

"Paul had a good chance, Joe had two really good chances.

"It isn't like Joe, the bare minimum he will do is hit the target there.

"I thought our game plan was carried out to a fine art apart from getting a goal and I felt we were a little bit wasteful from set plays, but great credit to the boys for the performance."

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