Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
DAN & BLAST
Crues kicking themselves after sub Kearns rescues a late point
CLIFTONVILLE turned the tables on Crusaders in more ways than one to steal a point at Seaview yesterday.
So often the victim of late sucker punches in recent north Belfast derbies, the visitors struck in injury time through substitute Daniel Kearns to leave their rivals sickened.
Crusaders would have been deserving winners as they succeeded in playing the game on their own terms throughout and hunted Cliftonville down all over the pitch.
Ben Kennedy was first to threaten for the home side, controlling a Billy Joe Burns cross on his chest before seeing his effort on goal deflected wide.
The Reds struggled to build any sort of momentum, although Joe Gormley did carve out a chance on the half-hour mark only to scuff his shot at Jonny Tuffey.
But it was a turgid, disjointed opening half and the first five minutes after the break contained more action than the entire 45 that preceded it.
Cliftonville at last took the fight to their opponents and looked certain to score when Ryan Curran cleverly nodded the ball down to Gormley inside the box but, as the striker lashed goalwards, Jarlath O’Rourke slid in with a brilliant block tackle.
At the other end, enterprising work by Johnny McMurray should really have brought about the opener.
The targetman expertly trapped a hopeful long ball then drew the Cliftonville defence before slipping a clever pass to Paul Heatley but the 34-year-old dribbled a weak effort straight at Declan Dunne when clean through on goal.
The home side began to smell blood, however, and a dangerous cross into the box by Kennedy found the run of Jordan Forsythe who headed just over.
Forsythe’s ability to find space then paid dividends in the 62nd minute.
Kennedy was again at the heart of it, swinging another fine cross into the box that unnerved the visitors’ defence.
When Daniel Larmour nudged the ball to Forsythe, the midfielder took a touch to steady himself and then drilled a shot across goal into the bottom corner of the net.
Heatley threatened to make the game safe but Dunne twice denied him with tidy keeping.
Still, it looked like the Crues would see it out until Levi Ives teed up Luke Foster in the box and his snapshot could only be parried by Tuffey, allowing Kearns to sweep the ball home in additional time.