Larne beat Glentoran 2-1 on Friday to move one point ahead of Linfield at the top of the Irish Premiership.
Andy Ryan and Leroy Millar were the goalscorers for the champions at Inver Park, with David Fisher grabbing a consolation for the visitors.
Linfield have two games in hand over the leaders, including Saturday’s home game against Ballymena United.
Jack Malone, Aaron Prendergast and Stephen Teggart scored as Glenavon defeated bottom side Newry City 3-0.
That was a fifth consecutive league win for the Lurgan Blues, who climb above Loughgall into seventh place in the table.
Newry have now lost 10 in a row in the Premiership.
Larne are unbeaten in nine top flight outings, winning seven and drawing two of those fixtures to move firmly into contention to retain the Gibson Cup they picked up for the first time this season.
Larne edge Glens
Tiernan Lynch’s side opened the scoring in the 10th minute when Paddy McClean attempted to control Jaziel Orozco’s looping delivery into the box but Ryan beat him to the ball, gave himself space and coolly slotted home from a tight angle.
The hosts nearly doubled their lead shortly after when Sean Graham held off his marker on the left channel before playing a dangerous pass into the box. Joe Thomson latched onto the ball with his resulting strike narrowly wide.
It was a feisty encounter and in the 36th minute, Glentoran thought they should have had a penalty when Junior fell under the challenge of Tomas Cosgrove as he tried to connect with Aidan Wilson’s delivery into the box. However, referee Ian McNabb waved away the appeals.
Larne doubled their lead in the 53rd minute when Levi Ives’ pass from the right wing was misjudged by the Glentoran defence, leaving Millar with space and he made no mistake from point-blank-range.
Larne’s goalscorers combined and nearly made it 3-0 when Millar’s skilful pass found Ryan, whose resulting strike made Aaron McCarey produce a fine reflex save.
The visitors pulled a goal back Cameron Palmer intercepted a slack pass and travelled forward before passing to David Fisher, whose strong finish flew into the bottom left-hand corner.
Ryan was in action again, this time when his well-timed pass found the unmarked substitute Lee Bonis at the back post, but his resulting strike was off-target.
Larne are now unbeaten at home for a year.
Glenavon continue fine form
At the Newry Showgrounds, Glenavon went in front 10 minutes before the break when Conor McCloskey picked out Malone on the edge of the area, and the midfielder fired home first time off the inside of the post for his fourth league goal of the season.
Six minutes later the Lurgan Blues doubled their advantage when Newry stopper Tom Murphy spilled McCloskey’s long-range effort straight into the path of the lurking Aaron Prendergast, who made no mistake from close range.
Substitute Teggart ensured the points went to Stephen McDonnell’s side in the 90th minute when the former Portadown man got on the end of a quick free-kick from the visitors and slotted past a helpless Murphy.
