Larne manager Tiernan Lynch said his side “needed to roll our sleeves up” as they defeated Cliftonville 2-0 in the Irish Premiership.
The result came after Cliftonville defeated Larne in the Irish Cup semi-finals on Saturday.
Larne are two points ahead of Linfield going into the split, with Cliftonville now 10 adrift of the top.
“We let ourselves down badly on Saturday as a group and we had to take responsibility for that,” Lynch said.
“Our fans and everybody in the club deserved more than what they got on Saturday and hopefully tonight was the first step to getting us closer again.”
While Cliftonville landed a big blow by reaching the Irish Cup final at Larne’s expense, it was the Inver Reds who ,came out on top when the sides met again on Tuesday.
Andy Ryan’s effort was headed into his own goal by Luke Kenny in the fifth minute before the striker fired home a second with 30 minutes to play.
Larne now hold an advantage heading into the final five fixtures ahead of Linfield, who defeated Carrick Rangers 3-2 on Tuesday night to remain two points behind the leaders.
“Tonight was a mentality thing. We needed to show an element of battle and resilience,” Lynch added.
“I never thought it was going to be about performance or how good football we were going to play.
“We got good goals at good times. Great credit to Cliftonville, it was a great performance from them on Saturday and they came out again tonight. It was a real proper ding-dong Irish League game. I’m delighted for us.
“It’s three points and another game, that’s all it is.
“There are five games to go and they are another five cup finals in front of us.
“It’s about how we approach them now. It’s the first one on Saturday and that’s all we will look at.”
‘It was their night tonight’
Cliftonville manager Jim Magilton said Larne deserved their win but was left frustrated by two missed chances that would have brought the hosts level, before Ryan fired home a killer second goal.
First, the in-form Ronan Doherty was kept out by Rohan Ferguson and the Larne stopper was alert again after Ben Wilson broke into the area.
“We lacked composure at times but when we actually settled down and passed the ball then we carved out two wonderful opportunities,” Magilton said.
“The difference tonight was we didn’t take them but they did.
“You have to take your opportunities and they couldn’t have fallen to two better people than Ronan and Ben.
“You have to commend the goalkeeper, who made two great saves at crucial times.
“We have to take our medicine, congratulations to Larne. They are a very strong physical outfit with lots of quality too.
“It was their night tonight.”
