This will be the tightest league race ever, says Crues’ Snoddy

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Snoddy added: “You’ve got to win these games if you want to win the league and we’ll certainly be going out to win.

“We’ve sort of turned the tide in the last few years, when I was coming through at Crusaders you were always trying to catch Linfield and now we’ve caught them and now they’re the ones trying to catch us.

“There’s no doubt they’ ll be fired up and ready to come at us before the games. It’s going to be a tough league, I think it’ ll be the tightest league there’s ever been and I don’t see two teams running away with it like other seasons.

“I think there are four or five teams who could go on and challenge for the Gibson Cup this season.”

Baxter was disappointed not to bag maximum points on Saturday but he’s impressed with his side’s goal threat.

“I thought Ryan Mayse was lively the whole game and he’s a very astute signing for Ballymena,” said Baxter.

“He gives them something different but from my point of view the team didn’t lie down.

“We got the equaliser but just not the winner.

“On the plus side, Rory Patterson and Jordan Owens give us different options and you have to approach every game differently.”

Gavin Whyte, who moved from the Crues to Oxford United in the summer, opened his account for the League One side last night, netting their second goal in a 2-0 success over Coventry City in the EFL Cup first round.

Whyte looks set to make Michael O’Neill’s Northern Ireland squad for the Uefa Nations League match against Bosnia and Herzegovina and the friendly against Israel next month.