Larne defender Kofi Balmer has jokingly thrown down a goals gauntlet to Davy McDaid after scoring his fourth of the season in Tuesday night's 2-1 win over Glentoran at Inver Park.
Balmer opened the scoring in the County Antrim Shield tie before star striker McDaid doubled the lead with a superb lob before the break.
Remarkably, Balmer has now scored four goals in only five domestic games for Larne since joining the club from Ballymena United in the summer.
Only Linfield striker Christy Manzinga (seven goals) and Coleraine forward Matthew Shevlin (five) have scored more than the 21-year-old this season.
“I’m trying to beat Davy here,” chuckled Balmer as he sat beside McDaid, who is also up to four for the season, after Tuesday night’s first round clash.
“It was just a case of right place, right time,” added the cultured centre back of his 16th minute opener against the Glens from a Ben Doherty corner.
“Albert (Watson) headed it down and I didn’t know too much about it. I swung my right leg at it, hoping it would go in and thankfully it did.”
Larne teammate Graham Kelly threatened to get a final touch on the ball a yard out, but the left back didn’t connect and the ball squirmed past a Glentoran defender on the line.
“Graham missed it and I think that put their defender off and it went in, so happy enough,” said Balmer. “Graham did say to me afterwards ‘I’ll take it’ but I wasn’t having any of it. Not a chance!
“I’m glad to be scoring goals for Larne, but the most important thing was the result. It’s a pity we couldn’t keep a clean sheet, but I thought we did well to hold out for the win.”
Balmer, who scored 10 goals in 106 appearances for Ballymena before moving to Inver Park in June, believes playing full-time at Larne will help him take his game to the next level.
“Definitely,” he said. “It can only help me improve technically and also fitness wise. I think it’ll help me improve big time.
“I’m loving it here and I couldn’t have asked for anything better. The whole club in general is brilliant and when I came in, everyone was great to me.
“If you’re not on it, the boys are very encouraging and they’re not criticising you or having a pop at you. It’s all constructive, which is great.”
