Shamrock Rovers rampage past Larne

This meeting of the champions north and south of the border at Windsor Park transpired to be a whitewash, with Lanre three goals adrift by the half hour mark and all at sea.

Victory hoists Stephen Bradley’s side onto four points of the seven the Rovers boss believes are necessary to advance from this league phase and bolsters their prize-money by €4m by another €400,000.

A flotilla of celebrities, some more random than others like Patrice Evra, pledged their support to Larne in advance of this tie but unlike their key local advocate, Carl Frampton, they failed to land a knockout blow.

Indeed, they barely prodded jabs at a Rovers unit whose clearance of their treatment room has been timely for the business end of the season.

While Bradley insisted on the eve of the game he wasn’t disposed to repeating the rotation of their 2022 group phase to prioritise the league, he could still spare regulars with Sunday’s trip to Dundalk in mind.

Gary O’Neill, Jack Byrne, Dylan Watts and Trevor Clarke were all named among the substitutes, as Rovers opted for an international dimension in attack.

Burke won three caps for Ireland under Martin O’Neill in 2018, scoring against USA, and Danny Mandroui was promoted to the senior squad by Stephen Kenny without being capped.

Johnny Kenny was part of the U21 squad which drew in Italy last week and once his club future with parent club Celtic is resolved there’s a player in there capable of graduating to the full set-up.

The trio were too slick for Larne to handle, all contributing to a cakewalk that may well have been more bruising for the hosts.

Larne’s ascent has been remarkable, the harbour town outside Belfast with 18,000 inhabitants breaking the stranglehold of Linfield and Glentoran by tacking together two titles on the trot and becoming the first Northern Ireland club to emerge through the qualifying rounds of Europe.

Quality-wise, there’s still a gap. A large gap. Even with Cian Bolger, son of former Dublin GAA star Declan, in the heart of their defence, they were torn to shreds by the wave of attacks they faced. Burke, in particular, proved a menace they couldn’t curb.

It began by the third minute. There’s nothing more scary than a free-wheeling Burke charging towards the box and when his attempt at a low shot was deflected into the path of Josh Honohan, the wing-back slotted the ball home from six yards. It was the Corkman’s third goal in 36 appearances since joining the champions from his hometown club this season.

Larne produced a swift counterattack on 10 minutes, Benji Magee squaring for Andrew Ryan who was too slow to connect. The striker would veer an overhead kick wide from the few scraps he fed off in a one-sided first half.

Kenny had already signalled his intent by ghosting in behind the Larne defence undetected and he made them pay when left alone again on 24 minutes. When Burke dashed to the endline, it seemed a shot from the angle was on but he hooked the ball across the six yard box to head home from just under the crossbar.

Burke was at the hub of the action, crashing a long-free kick off the wall that earned a 30th-minute corner. He was first to react to Marcus Poom’s inswinger and his glanced header was helped over the line by Tomas Cosgrove.

Greek referee Vassilis Fotias initially disallowed the goal for a shove by Honohan on the defender but a two-minute delay for VAR rectified the error.

Ryan’s errand free-kick straight into the wall on the stroke of the break encapsulated Larne’s lethargy but they eventually buoyed their crowd with a response two minutes into the second half.

Leon Pohls in the Hoops ought to have cleared the danger in full, allowing Chris Gallagher the time to drill his shot from the edge of the penalty area into the corner despite the custodian getting a hand to the ball.

There would be no grandstand turnaround as Burke soon regained the three goal cushion. From a wayward crossfield pass, he bombed towards goal and unleashed a left footer that swerved away from Rohan Ferguson and found the net off the inside of the post.

Pico Lopes crashed a header off the crossbar and substitute Darragh Nugent was denied by the legs of the goalkeeper but the chasm in class was already there for all to absorb.

LARNE: R Ferguson; T Cosgrove (S Want 90+2) , S Todd, C Bolger, L Ives; C Gallagher, J Thomson (J McEneff 60); B Magee (M Lusty 74), D Sloan (M Randall 74), S Graham; A Ryan.

SHAMROCK ROVERS: L Pohls; D Cleary, R Lopes, L Grace; D Burns (T Clarke 73), A McEneff (J Byrne 73), M Poom (D Watts 73), J Honohan; G Burke (C Noonan 66), D Mandroiu (D Nugent 60); J Kenny.

Referee: Vassilis Fotias (GRE)