Danske Bank Premiership: Crusaders 2 Linfield 0
A LATE two-goal salvo from Crusaders against Linfield on Saturday has them standing on the brink of retaining their title.
The Windsor Blues made the trip to Seaview knowing that a win would leave them breathing down the necks of the champions. But a goal two minutes from time from Gavin Whyte broke the deadlock before substitute Jordan Forsythe applied the coup de grace deep into injury time.
Stephen Baxter's men have only lost three games all season and have proven that they have both the quality and the steel to win games no matter what is thrown at them. They are now eight clear with four to play. It would take a monumental slip up for them not to hold onto the Gibson Cup.
Centre-half Colin Coates outlined that the North Belfast men fully anticipated what Linfield would bring on Saturday but knew they could emerge victorious if they took their chances when they appeared: "Coming into the game we knew that it wasn’t going to be a free-flowing beautiful game of football," insisted Coates
"We knew it was going to be more attritional and two teams matching up early doors to try and not give anything away. I thought on the day we defended slightly better. I thought at times they threw a lot of ball into the box – free kicks, corners and really, we dealt with that.
"We knew that was a big strength of Linfield’s and it’s a strong point of our game defensively, so we knew what was coming and we defended it well. We knew we’d get at least one chance. We maybe had two or three chances on the day. It was just a matter of sticking one away and then shutting up shop at the back and we’d see it through. It came a bit later than we thought it would but at the same time that probably gave Linfield less time to react and come back so it was a good day all round."
The two goals that separated the sides were typical Crusaders. The first arrived as the game looked like it was drifting towards stalemate. A long ball out of defence was flicked on by Jordan Owens and Whyte rounded the keeper to finish.
In added time, Forsythe brilliantly chipped over Glendinning as he raced back to his goal from a corner at the other end. Coates singled out both players for praise: "I think that we always knew that that we were going to get a chance at some point in the game and thankfully when it fell to young Gavin Whyte he stuck it away brilliantly," said Coates.
"And in those wee moments the quality players like Gavin Whyte show their class. [Forsythe's] was an incredible finish. If that sort of goal was scored in England, there would be people going on about it for a while. I would say probably technically he’s as good a footballer as I’ve seen in my time playing in the Irish league."
The result could have been different had Linfield's Stephen Lowry found the net around the hour mark. Sean O'Neill touched the ball onto the post however and the contribution of the net minder has not gone unnoticed by Coates either.
"Credit to Sean because there have been a lot of games this year where he has been a spectator for the majority of the game but in all those games he has had to make at least one big save," added Coates
"He's maybe not doing a lot and then he’s had to make one of those big saves and Saturday was another one of those."
Next up for the Crues is a trip to Glenavon and a win could wrap matters up, depending on how Linfield fare against Coleraine. Coates is taking nothing for granted: "It’s not wrapped up until it’s wrapped up mathematically," he said.
"There are 12 points to play for. So we will be looking to chalk off what we need as soon as possible."
