Larne owner Kenny Bruce has promised an end-of-season review in the wake of Saturday’s Irish Cup exit at the hands of Ballymena United.
However he insists he won’t be resorting to emotional or knee-jerk reactions despite a section of supporters airing their frustration at recent results.
After lifting the County Antrim Shield in January, the Inver Reds tumbled out of the title equation with just four wins in their last nine league outings.
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And Saturday’s painful penalty shootout defeat to rivals Ballymena, after leading 2-0 and 3-1 in normal time at the Showgrounds, was a bitter pill for some travelling fans.
Reacting to one supporter, who tweeted “manager out now”, Bruce wrote: “We need and want your support but nothing will be reviewed until the end of season as we stated previously.
“I know this frustrates supporters but we have to be principled and not emotional. I assure you a full review of our season will happen.”
Considering Larne were still playing in the Championship three years ago, it says a lot that lifting the Shield and lying fourth in the table constitutes a mini crisis for some supporters.
One onlooker tweeted: “I think this shows the job you’ve done at the club Kenny. Raised expectations to a level where losing an away Irish Cup QF on penalties isn’t acceptable.
“It won’t be long until not winning the league is a failure in some fans’ eyes!”
Bruce, who has invested heavily in his hometown club since his successful takeover in 2017, replied: “100 percent.
"Expectation comes with success and it rises so much quicker in football because of the importance and emotion of it.
“All we can do is try our best. We will keep doing that and review where we are in May.”
Larne boss Tiernan Lynch acknowledged after Saturday’s shootout defeat at Ballymena that his team’s performance was “simply not good enough”.
“I’m not going to try and make excuses,” he told Larne’s YouTube channel. “We let ourselves down, we let the fans down and it just wasn’t good enough.”
Asked if he understood the supporters’ post-match frustration after exiting the competition, he said: “Yes, 100 percent. They deserved more than what we gave them.
“All I can do, on behalf of the staff and the players, is apologise because that just wasn’t good enough. We just didn’t work hard enough.
"This has to sting and it has to hurt. You can't just shrug this off. When you get sliced like that, it has to hurt."
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