Paul O'Neill scored a hat-trick as Larne withstood a Carrick Rangers fightback to continue their unbeaten start to their Irish Premiership title defence with a 5-2 victory.

O'Neill struck twice early on while Dan Bent's penalty had the champions three goals clear before Danny Gibson scored twice in first-half injury time to reduce the deficit.

O'Neill completed his hat-trick in the second period as Carrick threatened a comeback.

Bent then scored a second penalty after Carrick's Joe Crowe was sent off to ensure Larne go into the international break in positive fashion.

The visitors went in front on 15 minutes when O'Neill collected Leroy Millar's headed knockdown before brilliantly turning away from Jimmy Callacher and then curling a measured shot beyond Nathan Gartside from inside the penalty area.

Larne threatened again when Matty Lusty got away from Kym Nelson and rolled the ball across the face of goal, but Carrick defender Callacher produced a timely sliding intervention.

However, the Larne strike duo weren't to be denied a second time and they combined again for Larne's second goal on 20 minutes. Leroy Millar slipped a pass into the path of Lusty, who burst into the penalty area before unselfishly rolling the ball in to O'Neill and he scored from close range.

Gartside made another crucial stop to block an O'Neill shot before Larne were awarded a penalty just after the half-hour mark when Ben Buchanan-Rolleston blocked Dylan Sloan's run into the box.

The game was delayed for six minutes while Carrick defender Mikey Place was stretchered off with an injury before Bent fired the spot kick into the top corner of the net.

The game looked beyond Carrick at that stage, but remarkably they pulled two goals back in first-half stoppage time.

Firstly, Rohan Ferguson dropped Aidan Steele's corner inside the six-yard area and Gibson was first to react to force the ball home from close range.

Just a couple of minutes later, Jordan Forsythe's long throw was flicked on by Seanan Clucas, once again Ferguson's handling wasn't secure and the ball was bundled home from a couple of yards out by Gibson before Bent could head the ball off the line.

In the second period, Sloan saw a shot tipped over by Gartside while at the other end, Kym Nelson's back post header from Steele's corner came back off the post before being scrambled clear.

Carrick continued to press for an equaliser with substitute Matthew Snoddy's shot blocked by the legs of Ferguson.

But it was Larne who got the decisive next goal on 69 minutes when O'Neill volleyed home after Ronan Doherty's long throw was flicked into his path.

Larne wrapped up victory with nine minutes left when Bent scored his second penalty of the afternoon after Crowe had been sent off for pulling back Sloan inside the penalty area.

Larne boss Gary Haveron: "We raced into a three-goal lead and rightfully so and then we just switched off for the last five minutes of the first half.

"We talked about the mentality test coming here and at half-time I wasn't shy in telling the boys that we didn't manage the game well enough in those last five minutes but how they managed the second half was very, very impressive."

Carrick boss Stephen Baxter: "When you're on the wrong end of a 5-2 defeat it's never good, but take nothing away from Larne, who I thought were a few streets ahead of us today in their movement and the pace and precision they moved the ball.

"But we battled bravely. At 3-0 down we didn't lie down when other teams might have folded in a situation like that but we rolled the sleeves up and threw the lot at it for 10 or 15 minuets in the second half before Larne turned the screw a little bit and took the game away from us.

"We don't have the depth (of squad), we have a good starting XI when you start to lose six or seven players through injury and suspension, it all becomes a little bit more difficult."