AHEAD of the first north Belfast derby of the season at Solitude on Saturday, Crusaders manager Stephen Baxter is anticipating "a very, very tough game."
The champions have now won three games on the bounce in the Danske Bank Irish Premiership, with the latest being a 4-0 home rout home of Dungannon Swifts. Baxter was, naturally, pleased with the performance of his team with goals coming from Joshua Robinson, Jordan Owens (2) and Matthew Snoddy.
"Certainly, we got our act together in the second half," said the manager. "We passed it pretty well and we scored a few goals and might have got a few more.
"We’re slowly just building up. It’s very early days and with five games in, we are all just getting into our stride again and into the swing of it.
"Obviously one or two other teams have made better starts [whilst] others haven’t made good starts."
The Crues, who beat Knockbreda 3-1 at Seaview in the JBE League Cup on Tuesday night, are currently sitting third in the league, five points behind Linfield and three behind Cliftonville. The next two fixtures are against those Belfast rivals.
"It’s early days but even at this early stage, [while] it’ll not make or break us either way on Saturday, we certainly want to try and get the points on the board and try and stay on Linfield’s tail," continued Baxter.
"I think if you look at the predictions [at the start of the season]– you would have probably had Linfield, Crusaders and Cliftonville up there in that top four, so we’re in the right position at the moment. We have just got to stay focussed and doing what we’re doing and play as best we can.
"The games between the two teams (Cliftonville and Crusaders) have been ultra tight in the last few years. We might have had the better of it last year but the two years before, they had much the better of it, so the games are tight and there is never a lot between us so I expect a very, very tough game."
With the last three Irish League titles going to north Belfast and with the two clubs again cutting out the pace towards the top of the table this season, the outcomes of these games will have a significant bearing in the race for the title.
Baxter revealed that that is a fact not lost on both he and his counterpart, Cliftonville boss,Tommy Breslin.
"Tommy’s a great guy and he and I have wee chats...I think we’re very appreciative of how well the two teams are doing in north Belfast," said Baxter.
"They are two good teams, Cliftonville and Crusaders right now. The last three or four years have proved that with all the trophy hand outs and we’re very pleased.
"They have a very exciting talent current coming back and I think I read where [Tommy Breslin] said he had [Stephen] Garrett coming back and [Conor] Devlin coming back [and] he said it was like getting four new players in and that's exactly how he will feel.
"We’re hoping for the same with [Barry] Molloy and [Chris] Morrow coming back and people like that who have been there and done it. If you get them back in, it’s a help to you.
"We’ve got the Knockbreda game on tonight, so we have got to get through that, but all things being equal, we’re going in the right direction," added Baxter.
