Lynch's 'pride' as Larne bow out of UEFA Champions League

Trailing 1-0 from the first-leg away to HJK Helsinki, the east Antrim side, playing in the Champions League for the first time, went a further goal behind on aggregate when Ollila found the net for the visitors on 26 minutes.

Larne, hosting the tie at Cliftonville’s Solitde stadium due to the pitch at Inver Park failing a FIFA inspection, reduced the deficit on 65 minutes when Lee Bonis coolly slotted home a penalty.

The Inver Park club’s fans went into raptures with three minutes of normal time left to play when substitute Joe Thomson scored, having only been on the pitch for 10 minutes.

Thomson’s goal levelled the tie on aggregate and put the Irish Premiership champions ahead on the night.

With the game in extra-time, the visitors again went in front on 96 minutes, with Larne’s Shaun Want getting the last touch.

The Finnish champions held on to progress to the second qualifying round, where they will face Molde from Norway.

Larne will take on Ballkani in the Europa Conference League second qualifying round, with the first leg to take place in Kosovo next Thursday.

Speaking to the club’s media director Ian Cahoon, Lynch explained: “I couldn’t be more proud of them. Not the just the players, but the staff and everyone connected with the club. We put on a show tonight. Obviously we’re disappointed that we didn’t get through, but there was very little you could ask any more of them. We carried our game plan to a fine art and caused them major problems.

"We’re kicking ourselves now that we didn’t get something from the first leg to give ourselves a real fighting chance. I can’t find any negatives in the players or the staff. I thought we were absolutely, to a man, outstanding tonight.

“I’ve said to the players, if we can get performances, week in, week out, in our own domestic league, I don’t think we’ll be too far away.”

He added: "I think they deserve to play at this level and they can play at this level. This is the stage we have to be thriving to be competing in. We’ll get over the disappointment and we will dust ourselves off and we’ll get ready for next Thursday.

"Thanks to Cliftonville for allowing us to use Solitude. I thought our fans, the club and the town need to be hugely proud of what we’ve achieved. Hopefully it is only the beginning. Hopefully we can get ourselves to the stage when we are not accepting nights like tonight. We want to go and play group stages and compete with teams in Helsinki and get through these stages and see where it takes us.”

Larne owner Kenny Bruce MBE took to social media after the match, stating: “So proud of our club tonight. Fantastic performance by our players and supporters. Only pride can be felt by everyone connected to Larne FC tonight.”