Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
LOWRY PAINTS BLEAK PICTURE
29, 55, 88 67 Crues midfielder not happy with brush with mediocre
Ryan Curran
PHILIP LOWRY salvaged a draw for Crusaders on Saturday – but it’s the points that have been frittered away that rankle with the veteran midfielder.
Along with Linfield, the Crues have been the Irish League’s standard bearers for the last few years.
But Stephen Baxter’s side have struggled to reach their usual lofty heights during this frantic season, and it took a late piece of ingenuity from Lowry to ensure more points weren’t dropped against derby rivals Cliftonville at Seaview.
Trailing 2-1 after Ryan Curran and Michael Mccrudden had flipped the game on its head following Jordan Forsythe’s (circled) first half header, Lowry improvised with his back to goal, cleverly finding the net from Billy Joe Burns’ knockdown.
“It was just a bit of instinct, probably the only thing I could have done with it was to swing the backheel at it,” said Lowry.
“I’ve been getting a lot of chances recently and hitting crossbars, dragging my shots or snatching at them a wee bit.
“Thankfully I got another chance and rescued a point for us late on.”
But Lowry is all too aware that Crusaders have lacked the solidity that has been one of their hallmarks in recent campaigns, and with the race to finish in the top six so tight, the 31-year-old knows there is no more margin for error.
He added: “Their two goals were shambolic from our perspective and just sort of sums us up (at the minute). Not just defensively but right through the team.
“It’s not just one or two isolated games, it seems to be every week.
“It’s unthinkable for us to be in the bottom six.
“It’s just been one of those years where it’s been very difficult to get any momentum together, probably because we’re sort of sleepwalking into games at times, you finish one game, you go home and before you know it you’re back again. Mentally, more than anything, it’s been difficult.
“No disrespect to the teams down at the bottom but we’ve lost to Dungannon, Carrick have taken five points off us, Warrenpoint have beaten us here… straight away that’s over ten points that we’ve basically thrown away and if you add that on to our tally now we’d probably be sitting second or third.”
Despite feeling that it was “two points dropped”, Cliftonville boss Paddy Mclaughlin was thrilled by his side’s attacking display, and singled out Mccrudden for special praise after the striker netted his sixth goal in three games having already set Curran up for the equaliser.
“The last week of football has probably been the best of his career,” said Mclaughlin of the forward who has taken a while to find his feet at the club.
“We knew it was just a matter of him getting his chance back in the team. He has a phenomenal attitude towards putting the team first so he’s definitely earned all the plaudits he’s getting at the minute.”
CRUSADERS: O’neill, Burns, Wilson, Lowry, Mcgonigle, Caddell, Forsythe,
O’rourke, Lecky, Heatley, Clarke. Subs; Tuffey (not used), Weir (not used), Cushley (replaced Clarke 70), Ruddy (not used), Brown (replaced Heatley 80), Thompson (replaced Caddell 70), Larmour (not used).
CLIFTONVILLE: Mccarey, O’reilly, Harney, C. Curran, O’connor, R. Curran, Mccrudden, Donnelly, Bagnall, Hale, Lowe. Subs; Dunne (not used), G. Breen (not used), Doherty (not used), O’neill (replaced Mccrudden 82), Casey (not used), Kearns (replaced O’connor 88), Coffey (not used).