'Still a lot of twists and turns' - Glens boss Devine

Glentoran manager Declan Devine said there are still a lot of potential "twists and turns" in the Irish Premiership title race after watching his side fall six points behind Larne at the top of the table following their 1-1 draw with Linfield at the Oval on Saturday.

Matt Yates put the Blues ahead in the first half with Aaron McEneff levelling from the penalty spot in the second half.

With four rounds of fixtures still remaining, the Glens' hopes of a first league title since 2009 appear to be fading fast, but Devine believes there is still hope of being crowned champions despite a second successive home draw.

"It's frustrating but there are still a lot of points to play for and a lot of twists and turns. We know we can be better and hopefully over the course of the rest of the season we can show that," said the Glentoran boss after the game.

"I don't think we played well enough, our standards weren't as high, especially in the first half.

"We were disappointed with the levels we showed. We know that today we weren't as cohesive as we have been. We just didn't do enough to win it.

"I was really disappointed with the goal that we gave away and I think we had a couple of opportunities where we should have done better."

Linfield boss David Healy told BBC Sport NI that he believed a draw was "probably a fair result".

Larne's 2-0 victory over Cliftonville meant that the Blues cannot retain their title but the south Belfast side are still chasing the second spot which would clinch European qualification without the need to win the end-of-season play-off final, for which they have already qualified courtesy of their triumph in the BetMcLean Cup final.

"We're fourth in the league and I've emphasised to the players we need to finish as high as possible and that will be the continued theme over the next four games.

"European football is important to the club financially so it's important we give ourselves the best chance so we'll continue to try and push."

Meanwhile Larne manager Gary Haveron was satisfied with the win which extended his team's advantage at the summit despite his side being "nowhere near their best".

"We were uncharacteristically sloppy and we made some individual mistakes, but we played some good football at times," he reflected.

"At 1-0 we were looking for that bit of extra security but we've been fantastic defensively all season and it's another clean sheet at home.

"I knew it would be hard for them to break us down and to get the two goals and three points, I'm delighted.

"We wanted to keep the momentum. We could have had this game called off [because of international call-ups] but I felt it was the right thing to keep playing. I felt we had enough within the group to get a result and in hindsight I'm glad to get the game out of the way and have the three points."