Yahoo Sports European experience will make Larne better - Haveron
Larne head coach Gary Haveron says the club will take "massive learning" from their inaugural Uefa Conference League group campaign as they prepare for their final match of the league stage against Gent.
Having lost their five games so far, the Irish Premiership champions are the only team remaining in the competition who have yet to pick up a point ahead of the Belgian side's visit to Windsor Park on Thursday.
The east Antrin club have been defeated by Molde, Shamrock Rovers, St Gallen, Olimpija and Dinamo Minsk to sit bottom of the 36-team table.
"We're all definitely going to be better coaches, better players, better club, for the experience that we've had this campaign," said Haveron.
"Bar the Shamrock Rovers game, I think we can hold our head high from all the games that we have played.
"You're playing against teams that have a massive history of playing in Europe year after year and getting to group stages year after year so for us it's just learning for us as a club and taking from that learning how we improve moving forward."
Larne's prolonged participation in European competition has led to a hectic fixture schedule on the domestic front and Haveron admits balancing the two has been a challenge.
The club sit ninth in the Irish Premiership table with six wins and four draws from their first 14 matches and have six games in hand over leaders Linfield, whom they trail by 22 points.
"It's definitely been difficult for us to switch between the two. There's massive learning for us as a club [from competing in Europe and on the domestic front], how we adapt to it and getting prepared for the next game.
"Preparation is vital for us and we've not had that preparation time so you put maximum focus into a European game to get the maximum outcome you can possibly get but then you have a recovery day.
"Then it's back to it but the boys can be fatigued and sore so there's only so much work you can do on the training pitch - getting back to our domestic league where we can prepare properly for each and every game and put sole focus on that should see our results improve."
Gent 'very attack-minded'
Haveron says the starting line-up he chooses for Thursday night's game will reflect "a mixture of experience and energy and youthful exuberance".
"They [Gent] are a 4-3-3 team, they're very attack minded. They commit massive numbers going forward, they like to ring boxes off from set pieces," he observed.
"They're a very dangerous side, they're playing in a very competitive league. They've got European history and they've qualified year-on-year – a team that is expected to finish in the upper stages of the competition so we know we've got a lot to do.
"We've got to stay in the game for long periods."
Larne midfielder Mark Randall agrees that the squad "have learned a lot collectively" from their European experience.
"It is a different level, a level above. There are teams you probably thought you could go toe-to-toe with and there are times we got it wrong sometimes," he explained.
"Maybe the likes of Shamrock, maybe we thought 'we can go out and have a bit more of a go', but if you make mistakes you get punished badly, so the level is very, very good.
"It's a totally different style of play. As a group we've learned to be comfortable out of possession. The levels of professionalism, athleticism, it's just different level. We want to finish on a positive."
