Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
HE’S ON H OWEN
Crues predatory striker in the six yard box and pay the price of poor d after bossing with first
4-1
DEADLY Owens beats United’s Kelly to put Crues in front 1-0
ALL OVER Declan Caddell put icing on the cake for Crusaders
SUPER MAC A delighted Paul Mcelroy after he put United ahead
JORDAN Owens is relishing every impending twist and turn of what promises to be the most competitive title race of his distinguished Irish League career.
The Crusaders skipper rode to the North Belfast club’s rescue with a thumping second half double to help secure three points at the Ballymena Showgrounds on Saturday.
Victory kept the Crues three points off early leaders Linfield, with second placed Larne, Cliftonville and Coleraine also jockeying for prominence early doors.
There are a lot of massive games to look forward to in the weeks ahead, including Coleraine’s visit to Seaview tomorrow night live on Sky Sports.
Little wonder then that Owens, who took his goal tally to a remarkable 233 goals in 555 games for the Crues at the weekend, is predicting one of the most crowded title races of recent times.
“It’s going to be really tough this season and when you look at the quality of the teams, it’s probably the most competitive league we’ve seen in a long time,” he said.
“The big games are going to come thick and fast - next up for us is Coleraine on Tuesday - and it’s going to be really tight in the months ahead.
“Any number of teams could win the title and I don’t think it’ll be a case of one team being clear after Christmas. It’ll be tight and hopefully we’re in among it.”
Ballymena United were 1-0 up and looking relatively comfortable at the break before a Ross Glendinning howler and Owens header helped turn the game on its axis.
Another point blank range Owens header and late Declan Caddell strike added salt to the Sky Blue wounds in the latter stages of the game.
United, who were better than the scoreline suggests, edged the opening period and were ahead on 24 minutes when Paul Mcelroy flicked home his second goal of the season.
But a promising looking day for the Sky Blues was detonated three minutes into the second period when Glendinning spilled a routine smother to allow Clarke to fire into an empty net.
And it was 2-1 for the visitors just five minutes later when Owens rose unmarked to head a Jordan Forsythe free-kick into the roof of the net from six yards out.
Owens bagged his second of the day on 77 minutes with a carbon copy of his first, gifted the freedom of the penalty area to plant another Forsythe free-kick past Glendinning.
And it was 4-1 five minutes later when Caddell raced clear to steer a shot into the bottom corner.
“I wouldn’t say we were poor in the first half, but Ballymena were better,” said Owens. “A few orders were given out at half time and we went out and gave a good account of ourselves.
“When we got the
PEP-TALK Stephen Baxte rallies his troo during the bre equaliser it gave us a confiden lift. We had a bit of momentu in the second half and I thou we were super.”
Ballymena boss Jeffrey wa picture of frustration as he m with reporters for his norm round of post-match media co mitments.
“In the first half we were exc lent, we played some good in sive football and broke forw with pace and energy,” he said
“But the harsh reality is y can’t make the basic mistakes made and win games of footb Their first, second and third go were all preventable.”