The night Haaland 'didn't get a kick' against Glenavon in 2018

"Maybe I won the mind games because he didn't get much of a kick."

Irish Premiership champions Larne will be breaking new ground for the competition when they start the league phase of their Conference League campaign against Molde on Thursday evening, though their opponents are already familiar to Northern Ireland football watchers.

Indeed, the tale of how a young Erling Haaland was marked out of a game by warehouse manager Andrew Doyle has gone down in Glenavon history.

When the Mid-Ulster side were drawn against the Norwegian outfit in the 2018 Europa League qualifiers, the Manchester United supporters in the squad - Doyle among them - were thrilled at the prospect of going against a side managed by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

But, then still a few weeks shy of his 18th birthday, the side's young striker was already building quite the reputation.

Indeed, after scoring six goals in the two league games before the tie, Glenavon's players were told there would be in the region of 20 scouts from the biggest clubs in the world coming to Lurgan for an in-person view of the superstar in waiting.

"We were watching highlights of their games, sitting watching tapes of him scoring hat-tricks, two goals here, another there," remembers Doyle, who left Glenavon last summer and has been playing for Rathcoole in junior football.

"All the boys were giving me stick, 'Doyler, you'll be getting tight against him.' Everyone was winding me up."

Aside from his reaction to Manchester City's draw with Arsenal this month, the years since have seen the back-to-back Premier League Golden Boot winner develop something of a robotic reputation but, even at that stage, Doyle struggled to get a rise from the emerging star.

"I did try to wind him up, give him a wee bit off the ball, but it didn't bother him one bit.

"A proper professional, I suppose. I wouldn't say cool and calm, but you just didn't get a reaction out of him.

"He just looked at you to say, 'who are you?' sort of thing. Which was right - who am I?"

While Doyle remembers tackling the teenager being akin to "hitting a brick wall", all those scouts descending upon the game were able to get an unexpected jump on the traffic during a game Glenavon won 2-1 to claim a first European victory in 23 years.

"I had to be up for it and ready. I knew what was coming.

"But he didn't get much of a kick. Our pitch wasn't the best, not like at Glenavon now, and maybe that played a part.

"He was moved to left wing for the last 20 minutes of the game and 10 minutes later he got taken off."

When leaving Glenavon after seven years this summer, the club's statement on Doyle's departure referenced his marking job on Haaland, although the man himself is quick to stress he cannot take sole credit for the burgeoning superstar's early exit six summers ago.

With a laugh, however, he admits that modesty does not always extend to social situations when he is "quick to remind the boys in the bar" watching Haaland now of the day he got the better of the world's most feared striker.

Haaland would miss the return leg due to the European Under-19 Championship - Molde won 5-1 in Norway, scoring twice late on with Glenavon chasing an away goal that would have sent them through - and the next month it was confirmed that RB Salzburg had won the race for his coveted signature.

Hung on the wall of Doyle's house today are a picture of him with Solskjaer and the Molde jersey of Eirik Hestad, the side's other star who scored four goals across the tie and could face Larne this week after returning to the club last year.

The memories are career highlights for Doyle, even if somewhat bittersweet.

Speaking afterwards, Solskjaer expressed disbelief that the Glenavon defender and his team-mates were not full-time professionals and Doyle thinks football coupled with spending so much time on his feet during his day job proved too tough on his body.

"That was the last time I was properly fully fit, that Molde match," says the 33-year-old.

"I was out for more or less the full season after. We went back into pre-season, played Newry early on, and my knee ballooned up.

"It was the second big operation on it. I was never able to get back to the standard."

For Haaland, meanwhile, the goals have flowed in an almost unbroken fashion since, through the remainder of his time in Molde, then at RB Salzburg, Borussia Dortmund and now Manchester City.

The more he finds the net on the world's biggest stages, the more fondly those in a different shade of blue remember the day he drew a blank at Mourneview Park.