Larne 1-0 Gent: Winner against Gent a childhood dream for Tomas Cosgrove

By reaching this stage of a major European competition, Larne broke new ground for Irish League clubs. Never before had a club from Northern Ireland reached the group or league stage of one of the Uefa club competitions.

For League of Ireland side Shamrock Rovers, who beat Larne 4-1 in October, this stage is more familiar.

Their 10th place finish in the league stage earned them a spot in the newly introduced play-off round in January and that is the aspiration for Cosgrove and Larne.

“You’ve seen what Shamrock Rovers can do and we’re not a million miles away from them,” Cosgrove said.

“Look what they’ve done – they’ve gone and qualified and we’re so disappointed because they have they hammered us [when we played each other]. So we’re like, we can have the belief, we can do it.”

On the domestic stage, Larne are currently in ninth position and 22 points off league leaders Linfield but have six games in hand after their European exploits this season.

With fixtures now coming quickly for Gary Haveron’s side, Cosgrove believes this win in Europe will see them kick on in their quest for a third consecutive league title.

“Hopefully we can get a run together and catch up with our games in hand,” Cosgrove said.

“Until it’s mathematically impossible, we’ll give it [winning the league] a go. We have to play Linfield another two time, we have to play the top six – and we’re only a few points behind if we win all our games in hand so of course it’s possible.

“Hopefully this’ll be the catalyst to push us on and we go again on Monday [against Dungannon Swifts].”