'No excuses' as Limavady stun Larne - Haveron

Larne were stunned in extra-time by second-tier Limavady United

Gary Haveron says Larne "got what we deserved" as the Irish Premiership champions were knocked out of the Irish Cup by Limavady United.

After a goalless 90 minutes, Ruairi Boorman scored the only goal of the game in extra-time as the second tier side stunned Haveron's outfit at the Showgrounds.

Limavady are rewarded for their win with a trip to Irish Premiership side Crusaders in the last-16, while Larne's wait for an Irish Cup triumph rolls on.

"There are no excuses. Limavady were hungrier and they played the conditions much better than we did," said Larne's first team head coach Haveron.

"We got what we deserved."

Win over European side 'fully deserved'

Limavady manager Paul Owens said he was "delighted for everyone involved" as his side pulled off a huge upset.

The club are second in the Championship and chasing leaders Bangor and Owens said it was his aim to guide the club to the top flight.

"We're a Championship club who are striving to reach the Premiership," he said.

"This shows the potential of the club when we are producing performances like that against a Uefa Conference League side.

"Someone reminded me this morning that they just beat Gent, so it is a huge day for the club. I think it was fully-deserved."

Owens added "there is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes" so it was "brilliant to put in a performance like that".

"There has been a hell of a lot of sacrifice over the Christmas period.

"We've been in every two days. We've had a good run of form which has obviously helped but that is a real reward and sacrifice for all the hard work.

"Our preparations have been a bit disrupted with the weather, we had a training session called off on Thursday so tactically, there wasn't a whole lot of work done.

"We tried to press as high as we can, we didn't want to sit in. There was nothing in the game, which was brilliant for us and Ruairi getting the goal in extra-time, the scenes were brilliant."

Haveron admitted he had "warned" his players about the conditions they would face at the Showgrounds against a motivated Limavady side.

"We knew it wasn't going to be easy coming here. When you see the pitch and how heavy it was, you knew it was going to be a mentality test and attitude test.

"We can't allow that to happen and the chances we missed at the end sum up our day."

Haveron felt his side should have had a "stonewall" penalty when Conor McKendry went down in the area in the first half but said there was enough time left in the game to respond.

"I don't think anyone in the ground thought it was anything other than a penalty.

"We didn't do enough in the final third.

"We have missed three massive chances with the last kicks of the ball, but it shouldn't need to get to that stage.

"The urgency should be there from the beginning of the game."