Larne gained some ground on Irish Premiership pacesetters Coleraine with a scrappy 1-0 win over Portadown at Inver Park.

In a game of few chances, Larne thought they had been awarded a second-half penalty when referee Louise Thompson initially pointed to the penalty spot before overturning her decision.

Substitute Kevin O'Hara then scored with eight minutes left as Larne ended a sequence of three home games without a win.

The victory sees the Inver side close the deficit to Coleraine to nine points with two games in hand, while Portadown remain in 11th position.

O'Hara header secures big win for Larne

It was a fast start at Inver Park, where a Chris Gallagher shot was blocked by the alert Matty Carson while a Matt Ridley header from a corner was held by Aaron McCarey.

Referee Thompson was called into action early on following a late challenge by Gary Thompson on James Simpson, which sparked a melee between players on both sides.

Once order was restored, the official showed yellow cards to Thompson and team-mate Baris Altintop, along with Larne's Conor McKendry.

McKendry came close to opening the scoring soon afterwards, but his first-time shot from Aaron Donnelly's pass narrowly cleared the crossbar.

Thompson then had to leave the field after falling awkwardly following an aerial challenge, which prompted players from both teams to call for urgent medical attention before the Portadown player was able to walk off with assistance.

Larne again threatened eight minutes before the interval when McKendry's shot deflected off the foot of Altintop and clipped the outside of the post on it's way past.

They almost found the opener on 63 minutes when Ridley met Tomas Cosgrove's corner with a downward header, but Portadown full-back Lee Chapman was ideally placed to hack the ball off the goal-line.

There was huge controversy on four minutes later when Lusty went down in the penalty area between Mackinnon and Altintop, with referee Thompson initially pointing to the penalty spot.

However, with Larne skipper Cosgrove about to place the ball on the spot, the official overturned her initial decision and instead awarded a free-kick to Portadown before cautioning Lusty.

The deadlock was eventually broken with eight minutes left when two of Larne's replacements combined with Mark Randall cutting the ball back from the bye-line for O'Hara to nod home from close range.