Larne have secured their first ever Irish League title as a 2-0 win over Crusaders gave them an unassailable 12-point lead at the top of the table.
Andy Ryan and Lee Bonis scored their goals in either half at Seaview.
The fortunes of the east Antrim club have been transformed in recent years with the help of significant investment from owner Kenny Bruce.
Larne’s 15-game unbeaten Premiership run, comprising 11 wins and four draws, has proved decisive in the title race.
They last tasted defeat in the league away to Cliftonville on 2 January and become the first club from outside Belfast to collect Northern Ireland domestic football’s top prize since Portadown in 2002.
The Invermen’s success wrenches the Irish Premiership crown from nearest challengers Linfield, who lifted the Gibson Cup in each of the last four seasons.
The champions’ inability to pick up sufficient points against other teams in the top half of the table was a crucial factor in their failure to stop Larne securing their historic maiden triumph.
Tiernan Lynch’s men’s championship victory has been built on solid defensive foundations, the extent of their rearguard frugality emphasised by their keeping of a sixth consecutive clean sheet in the league against the Crues on Friday night.
Indeed, their goalkeeper Rohan Ferguson has not conceded in 19 of his last 24 games between the sticks for the new champions and Larne have shipped just 18 goals in their 36 league games to date this campaign.
Crusaders had previously suffered just one top-flight loss on their home ground this season but, needing just a point to win the title, it was the visitors’ influential January signing Andy Ryan who broke the deadlock after 11 minutes.
The forward ghosted into the area to meet a Micheal Glynn delivery to the near post and fired home from close range.
Twenty five minutes later Crusaders were reduced to 10 men when Billy Joe Burns was sent-off for throwing the ball in the direction of Larne’s Shaun Want.
Lee Bonis doubled Larne’s advantage in the 62nd minute, sweeping the ball home left-footed from Leroy Millar’s pinpoint cross.
Bruce’s financial backing for his hometown club since 2018, plus the vision of manager Lynch in helping to introduce a full-time model, have been crucial in Larne’s progress from a team languishing at the bottom of the second tier of Northern Ireland football to champions in the space of just five years.
With their trophy lift still to come, the celebrations of the club’s first title in their 134-year history are likely to be prolonged, before they look forward to representing the Irish League in the Champions League qualifying rounds this summer.