Crues must snap out of slump, warns Baxter
Manager eyes solutions after admitting it hasn’t been good enough
STEPHEN Baxter has said Crusaders must get their act together and find the mental strength needed to drag themselves out of their mid-season slump.
The Crues have claimed just four wins from 15 games since early January — and could drop into the bottom half if they lose at Glentoran today.
Baxter admits these are difficult and unusual times, and understands fans’ frustration.
“We are conceding really bad goals at really bad times in matches, and you can’t afford to do that,” he said.
“You have to be mentally strong, you have to deal with that, and there needs to be improvement. You are searching for improvements all the time and people are working hard.
“People get frustrated around these things — it is something we are not used to, so I have to go and find the solutions. It is my responsibility.”
After beating Warrenpoint 4-0 on January 2, the Crues were third, just four points off the top. But a run of just four wins since has seen them slip 18 points off the pace.
Their poor run continued on Tuesday night at Dungannon and a 2-1 defeat that was more emphatic than the final score suggested.
Baxter was particularly dismayed with his side’s defending, as Callum Byers and then Rory Patterson scored from set-pieces.
He added: “We concede a goal from a corner-kick, which is really such a soft goal; we then give a needless free-kick away on the edge of the box and concede again.
“That has been the story of our season — conceding goals from set-plays. We have to stop it.”
Baxter admitted the Crues’ performance levels have to improve too, adding: “I thought that Dungannon were better than us on the evening — they passed it better than us, they had more goalscoring opportunities than we had.
“We huffed and puffed — they had the bigger threat, they looked more dangerous to me.
“We hit the post and could have equalised with the last kick of the game, but we didn’t do enough. We weren’t clinical enough in front of goal.
“These are things we need to work on and we need to get our act together because it’s not good
The Oval, Today, 3.00pm enough from us.”
Today’s game at Glentoran is the Crues’ seventh so far this month, but Baxter said the busy schedule is no excuse.
“It is the same for everybody — you just have to play the games that are in front of you. We are on a bad run of games — we have two wins from seven — so it is not the form we expect,” he added. “That is something we need to address, and we have been talking around it a lot, but that is football. That is the way it works sometimes and we’ve got to find the solutions.
“We made seven changes (on Tuesday night), we tried to freshen the team up because there are a lot of tired bodies.
“We now have to focus on Saturday. Glentoran are an excellent side with very, very good players, and we have to go there and be much better.”