Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
HATCHET JOB
Crues demolish Glens at Oval as East Belfast side’s Championship bid goes a little pear shaped
CRUSADERS squeezed the life out of a lacklustre Glentoran side to record a statement win at The Oval yesterday.
In front of a large home crowd on a gloriously sunny day in east Belfast, the stage looked set for the Glens to prove there is real substance behind their stylish brand of football.
But they were insipid throughout the 90 minutes as the Crues combined brains and brawn in what was a textbook away performance.
After a spot of early shadow boxing, the visitors opened the scoring in the ninth minute with their first meaningful attack.
Target man Adam Lecky laid the ball off to Ben Kennedy then raced into the box as the midfielder dinked a cute pass out to Jarlath O’Rourke on the left flank. The full-back’s cross to the near post was then met by the eager Lecky, who skilfully slotted home with the instep of his right boot for his fifth goal of the season.
The home side were struggling to get any change out of Stephen Baxter’s well-drilled defence and the Crues almost doubled their lead before the half hour mark but Caolan Marron’s desperate lunge sent Josh Robinson’s close-range shot spinning over the bar.
That escape briefly woke the Glens up and they should have equalised in the 35th minute.
Patient build-up play led to Conor McMenamin picking out Jay Donnelly in the box butwhen the striker headed back across goal for Robbie
McDaid, his fellow forward spooned a volley over from ten yards out.
McMenamin then opted to go it alone rather than feed Donnelly, who was quick to show his frustration when his team-mate got crowded out by the Crusaders defence, summing up a disjointed first half for the
Oval men.
Glentoran remained stuck in neutral on the resumption and five minutes into the second half they were grateful to keeper Aaron McCarey for keeping them in the game.
A clipped pass from Crues midfielder Jordan Forsythe sprung the offside trap but as Paul Heatley raced clear, McCarey refused to buy the forward’s dummy and dove at Heatley’s feet to bravely gather the ball.
The visitors kept the foot down though, and reaped their reward minutes later. Lecky’s well-timed pass into
Johnny McMurray’s path saw Bobby Burns attempt to bail his team out with a recovery challenge.
He got his timing wrong, however, felling McMurray in the box, and Kennedy confidently whipped the penalty into the top right corner of the net.
The game was up for the Glens in the 66th minute when Aidan Wilson – just on as a sub for the injured Robinson – butted a bullet of a header past McCarey from Kennedy’s corner kick.
From there, it was a simple matter of seeing the game out and the limp Glentoran attack didn’t have it in them to make life even slightly uncomfortable for Baxter’s