Terrific to see a small section of Crusaders fans in the away end of the ground as the process towards normalisation of sporting fixtures continues slowly.

They've just had an opportunity to jeer Daire O'Connor after the Cliftonville midfielder's wayward snap-shot comes back off the underside of the roof of the stand behind the goals.

We've just kicked off at Inver Park on a bright and sunny night.

Here's hoping for an exciting encounter.

Central defender Sam Roscoe has agreed to join Premiership champions Linfield from Ayr United on a two-year-deal. Read more here.

Image source, bb

Larne manager Tiernan Lynch recalls his experienced players to the line-up after going with mostly youth for Saturday's 2-1 Premiership defeat by Coleraine.

Graham Kelly misses out after suffering a knock at the weekend, while goalkeeper Conor Devlin is also sidelined.

Jeff Hughes is out with a hamstring injury.

Glenavon boss Gary Hamilton makes just one change to his starting line-up from Saturday's 1-1 draw with Dungannon which secured a seventh-placed finish and a play-off spot.

Calvin Douglas replaces Aaron Harmon.

Larne: Mitchell, Watson, Robinson, Herron, Sule, Randall, Hale, McDaid, Donnelly, Cosgrove, Jarvis.

Subs: Scott, Lynch, Mitchell, McKendry, D'Sena, McMurray, Lusty.

Glenavon: Hyland, A Doyle, Purkis, Campbell, Hall, Snoddy, Fitzpatrick, Douglas, Garrett, Ward, McNulty.

Subs: Coates, Birney, Byrne, McCloskey, O'Mahony, Norton, J Doyle.

Image source, BBC Sport

Larne owner Kenny Bruce spoke with BBC Sport NI's Mark Sterling about bringing European football to Inver Park back in 2019. The Champions League music may have to wait, but the Europa Conference League would do for starters.....Read about it here

Anyone recall Glenavon's last European adventure? If you need a clue, it involved Manchester United's current manager. Read about it here

If there's one club who know their way around the play-offs it's Cliftonville, with the Reds having won three of the four finals to have been played since the format was introduced in 2015-16.

Paddy McLaughlin's side find themselves back on a familiar stage tonight with a mouth-watering tussle against their traditional north Belfast rivals.

The late-season revival of April Player of the Month Michael McCrudden means top scorer Ryan Curran has to once again settle for a place on the bench.

He is joined there by the prolific Joe Gormley, fresh from half an hour under his belt against Linfield in the weekend, his first action since fracturing his elbow in January - certainly two good options for McLaughlin to call upon if his side needs a goal.

It says a lot for the high standards that Crusaders have set in recent seasons that this is the first time that have had to utilise the play-offs as a means of qualification.

After playing a youthful side in Saturday's final league game at Glentoran, manager Stephen Baxter has his big-hitters back for tonight's crunch clash.

Cliftonville: McCarey, Ives, O'Reilly, Harney, C Curran, O'Connor, McCrudden, Donnelly, Bagnall, Hale, Lowe.

Subs: Dunne, R Curran, Foster, Doherty, Gormley, O'Neill, Coffey.

Crusaders: Tuffey, BJ Burns, Weir, Kennedy, McGonigle, Cushley, Forsythe, O'Rourke, Thompson, Heatley, Larmour.

Subs: Shields, Caddell, Ruddy, Brown, Logan, Holland, T Burns.

Image source, BBC Sport

From 'Jeffrey's jig' to Glentoran's 'hoodoo' at the hands of Cliftonville, the Irish Premiership's European play-offs have produced some stunning drama in recent years.

Cast your mind back to some previous play-offs here.

Love them or loathe them, the play-offs are back!

The end-of-season competition has been a source of great debate since finding its way onto the Irish Premiership fixture schedule some years ago.

But whether you think it's fair that a team could potentially lose out to another club who finished lower than them in the league table and many points adrift, or whether you think they liven up the final section of the regular season, there's no denying the drama that they bring to the closing weeks of the campaign.

The play-offs were axed last year after Northern Ireland lost one of its coveted European places but now, after some improved results by local sides in continental competition, the fourth and final Euro place has been restored and will be decided by a shootout between four teams over the next five days.

The stakes could hardly be higher - the winners of Saturday's final will collect a prize of around £200,000 simply for reaching Europe - with the added potential for more money if they can progress through a round.

Tonight's semi-final ties are intriguing as well - there's a north Belfast derby between Cliftonville and Crusaders while Larne, chasing a first ever tilt at European football host Glenavon.

As always, we have it all covered here with live stream coverage of the Cliftonville v Crues encounter along with live text updates and in-play goal clips from Inver Park.

Stay with us it's gonna be exciting!