Larne 'need to keep the ball better'

BBC News

6 days ago

Larne defender Tomas Cosgrove says the Irish Premiership side "need to keep the ball better" in Thursday's Uefa Conference League second qualifying round second leg against Prishtina in Kosovo.The east Antrim side were held to a goalless draw in the first leg of their tie at Ballymena Showgrounds last week."It was a weird game. We did well for 65 minutes and were disappointed we didn't score a few goals," said Cosgrove. "We ended up with 0-0 and we were happy about it because we really hung on towards the end."It's a massive game on Thursday night. We know what we did right in the game and we know what we did wrong so we'll try to address that."Cosgrove believes Nathan Rooney's side must dictate the pace of the game more in the second leg."They are a good team. They are at the same stage of the season as us but they kept the ball really well."We need to keep the ball a bit more, have a bit more belief. "I think we were trying to force it and go for goal every time rather than recycling the ball and slowing the game down to our tempo."The ex-Cliftonville player was part of both Irish Premiership title-winning squads with the Invermen in 2023 and 2024 and says that Rooney's arrival has brought a fresh approach."It's a new era at the club, new ideas. Kenny [Bruce. former owner] is away as well. "Nathan brings in a lot of enthusiasm, he's really keen on the job. "He brings a lot of energy into the building every day. We're all getting a big boost from it."Whoever comes through the tie between Portuguese club CD Santa Clara and Croatian outfit NK Varazdin will be awaiting the winners.