Tiernan Lynch keeping his eye on the ball despite Larne's potential to win Danske Bank Premiership title on Wednesday

The Inver Park outfit beat Cliftonville 2-0 thanks to goals from Lee Bonis and Joe Thomson, which has opened up a 10 point gap at the top on defending champions Linfield, who take on Glentoran tonight knowing that losing isn’t an option if they want to mathematically stay in the title race.

It’s all very much in Larne’s hands as victory at Crusaders later this week would be enough to secure a historic maiden top-flight trophy triumph and round off a superb season in which they’ve kept 22 clean sheets.

Tuesday’s win guaranteed a top-two finish and a spot in European qualification for next season – something Lynch wasn’t aware of at full-time but says his players thoroughly deserve.

"I didn't even know that (we had guaranteed Europe),” he told Larne’s media channel. “The last three or four seasons where it has got to this stage and two teams have qualified I'm thinking 'another two weeks'.

"I couldn't be more proud of this bunch of players - they are as honest as the day is long. Who knows what is going to happen but they will deserve whatever comes their way."

Every Larne supporter will be tuning into tonight’s fixture hoping Glentoran can do them a favour but Lynch and his players will be focusing on Friday’s trip to Seaview.

"The big thing for us is to focus on Friday night,” he added. “We have to keep our heads clear.

"We have a massive game on Friday night and we can control what we can control. If you get a stroke of luck so be it, if we don't we will be prepared."

Lynch wasn’t in the mood for getting carried away either despite taking a huge stride towards their main objective.

"Ultimately nothing has been achieved yet,” he said. “This is just one step at a time and we need to make sure that we take care of what we need to take care of.

"It's always important that we get a clean sheet which gives us a platform to build on and I thought we were outstanding out of possession and looked dangerous in attack."