Larne manager Tiernan Lynch does not feel Thursday’s Uefa Conference League meeting with Shamrock Rovers will prove anything about the respective strengths of the Irish Premiership or League of Ireland, although he believes there remains a “difference” between the two competitions.
Larne are back-to-back winners of the Irish Premiership, the top domestic league in Northern Ireland while Rovers have been crowned the League of Ireland Premier Division champions in each of the past four seasons.
Teams from the two leagues used to compete regularly in cross-border competitions, although the most recent of them, the Setanta Cup, was last staged in 2014.
“I don’t think, whether we win this game or lose this game, people will walk away thinking Larne beat Shamrock Rovers so now the Irish League is better than the League of Ireland,” Lynch said.
“I don’t think it’ll be anything like that.”
Lynch sees an increased level of professionalism in the League of Ireland, although has stressed he does not want his side, the first from the Irish Premiership to feature at this stage of a major Uefa competition, to show their opponents “too much respect”.
“I don’t think there’s a big difference but I think there’s a difference,” said the 44-year-old, who turned down an approach from St Johnstone to stay at Larne last month.
“There’s probably more teams that are full-time and I definitely think still there’s a level of professionalism that we as a league and us as clubs could probably emulate and need to get a bit closer to, but I don’t think it’s a massive task.
“I do think we need to have a wee bit more belief in as ourselves in as a league, I keep saying this even in European competitions.
“We’re under no illusions of how much talent is in that squad, and under no illusions of the football they play, but I keep harping back to us and what we can do and I don’t think we need to give them too much respect.”
Irish Premiership is Larne’s ‘bread and butter’
Larne qualified for the league phase of this competition thanks to a dramatic run through the qualifiers that saw them beat Ballkani on penalties before Andy Ryan’s hat-trick edged Lincoln Red Imps in a thrilling second leg.
The County Antrim side, who lost 3-0 to Molde in their opener last month, had league fixtures postponed during the period and are now working through the fixture backlog.
Saturday’s draw with Crusaders meant the side have won just four of nine domestic fixtures this season.
Meanwhile, thanks to the League of Ireland’s status as a summer league, Shamrock Rovers are embroiled in a tense conclusion to another title race, sat third with a pair of games to play but just two points behind leaders Shelbourne.
“It’s an experience we have to enjoy, have to embrace,” added Lynch.
“But also we have to make sure that the domestic league is our bread and butter. We know that from the 22 December, the Europa stuff is over and we can concentrate fully on our domestic league.
“There’s lots of things going on that we have to keep an eye on but we know what we want to do, we have a gameplan. Whether that works over the course of seven or eight months, I don’t know, but it’s something we’ve been working towards.”