Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
BAX ACHE WAS DUE TO CRUES’ LACK OF FIGHT
FUMING Crusaders boss Stephen Baxter admitted some of his boys ‘didn’t show up’ for Saturday night’s crunch clash at
Inver Park.
Larne moved to within one point of Linfield at the top of the Premiership, courtesy of goals from
Davy Mcdaid and Tomas Cosgrove.
The home fans were given an uncomfortable final 10 minutes when a defensive howler involving goalkeeper Conor Devine and Fuad Sule presented Crues substitute Declan Caddell with an simple finish.
But Tiernan Lynch’s team held on to claim three valuable points and their first win in three outings.
“One or two of our boys didn’t turn up and that’s not good enough,” stated Baxter.
“We did show a bit of character by pushing right to the end, but I have to ask the question, what happened to us for the other 80 minutes?
“That’s the disappointing thing for me. There were one or two good performances and one or two who let me down.
“I have to say, the better team won. You can’t offer two simple goals to a team like Larne and expect to get something out of the game.
“With 15 minutes to go, we gave it a lash and got a goal back. We put them under a little bit of pressure, but it was too little too late for us.
“For Cosgrove to get the space he did, to play three one-twos around our back six to score his goal, is simply not good enough.”
Baxter (inset) believes Larne have got what it takes to maintain their push at the top of the table.
“This is an incredibly difficult league,” he added. “Larne have players like Sule, (Mark) Randall and (Lee) Lynch who have played at a high level.
Those lads know how to manoeuvre the ball and, in Martin Donnelly, they have a master tactician.
“They are all top players. They’ve all come a long way in such a short space of time. It will be interesting to see how they keep that all going.
“We are all chasing Linfield at this moment in time and Larne are certainly keeping the foot on the gas.
“It’s very early days for every team and there are lots of games to play.” Larne assistant boss Tim Mccann insists the team will stick with their approach of playing the ball out from the back – despite the fact they handed the Crues an unexpected late lifeline.
“Mistakes happen and, as long as it doesn’t cost us, then we can’t be too critical,” said the former Glentoran player.
“It’s the one and only time I can remember us being caught out like that, so we’ll keep asking them to play out from the back.
“Apart from that wee lapse, we were delighted with the overall performance. Crusaders have been causing teams all sorts of problems, but we moved the ball so well.
“We worked hard to win the ball back when we lost it. The hunger and desire of the team was outstanding, so we have to be happy.”