Jensen is targeting glory on all fronts with Crues
CRUSADERS goalkeeper Brian Jensen may be new to the Irish League, but he is now eyeing up a quick-fire cup treble.
Although the 42-year-old former Burnley and West Brom shot-stopper is in the twilight of his glittering career, he still possesses a great hunger to succeed.
Jensen helped the Crues book their place in the County Antrim Shield decider in midweek — Stephen Baxter’s boys edged past a battling Carrick Rangers 1-0 — and he still has another two cup semi-finals looming.
The Crues face Dungannon Swifts in the League Cup next week, while the Shore Road team will be on their travels in February, making the trip across the Irish Sea to oppose Inverness Caley Thistle in the IRN-BRU Cup.
With a Shield final against Ballymena United looming on January 23, Jensen believes it could be a memorable season for the Crues, but he insists their immediate focus is on tomorrow’s Danske Bank Premiership clash with Glentoran at Seaview.
“I’ve played in a few finals in my time, it’s always nice to put that on the CV,” said Jensen.
“It’s one down and two semi-finals to go. The gaffer has mentioned it — we are not going to hide it, we are going to go for every single one of them.
“We are going to try and win everything that we possibly can. We are also chasing down Coleraine at the top of the league table.
“I thought we did really well up there last week, considering the pitch was very heavy. I still think we had the best chances.
“If we start to be a little bit more ruthless in front of goal, I think that we have got a good chance of catching them. We have a great squad of players. If you are competing on four or five fronts, it’s essential to have a big squad — and as a group we have demonstrated we can compete.
“We had quite a few of the boys sitting in the grandstand in midweek against Carrick because of injury, but the boys who came in did a great job.
“It will probably give the gaffer a little bit of a headache for the weekend, but it is a positive headache. Everyone wants to be playing so it’s a nice luxury to have.
“We also have the Irish Cup coming up in the New Year, but our mantra is to take one game at a time. Our focus will now be on Glentoran.
“They have had some disappointing results lately and I’m sure they’ll be coming to our place to try to put things right, so we have to be ready for the challenge.”
Even though the Crues won with a bit to spare against Carrick, Jensen believes there is still a lot more to come.
“We made heavy weather of our Shield win,” he added. “Perhaps the tough game at Coleraine took its toll a little bit.
“But we still created the most chances (against Carrick) and I think we deserved to go through, although we could have made it a little bit easier for ourselves.
“I think I had only one shot to save over the 90 minutes. Our aim was to reach the final and we did that. We kept a clean sheet and created loads of chances, so there were a lot of positives to take from the game.
“But we’ll need to improve against Glentoran, there is no question about that.”