Samuel Gelston’s Whiskey Irish Cup Final: Ballymena United 0-4 Crusaders
THIRTEEN was a bitter-sweet number for Crusaders boss Stephen Baxter as his club celebrated retaining the Irish Cup in some style against Ballymena United.
His Shore Road men will embark on a European adventure for the 13th time, but this victory was also inspired by the recent death of 13-year-old Crusaders Strikers player Kaylee Black.
Baxter revealed afterwards that he’d met Kaylee’s family on Wednesday night and her loss had put the significance of this match into perspective for his players, allowing them to play with freedom and without fear.
“We had a lovely moment with the family during the week, after training. This group of players are immense people to work with. It was their idea to raise money, and all the staff joined in, and we put a collection of money in with a card; I and a couple of staff and Billy Joe [Burns, club captain] met the family at Seaview.
“We chatted as a team around the loss of someone connected to our football club, played for our Strikers, girls section.
“It brings everything into reality, into perspective, that this is a game of football, which we all love and enjoy – but when something like this happens that all goes out the window.
“It took a lot of our nerves away. We simply said ‘Let’s go and play football, let’s go and enjoy this, let’s really embrace this Cup Final.
“I felt on Wednesday that we had it.”
And so it proved.
Crues by nickname, cruise by performance. The Hatchetmen ruthlessly chopped up Ballymena United’s hopes of ending their 34-year wait for an Irish Cup triumph with a dominant display.
Sure, there was luck involved in their first two goals, from Ross Clarke and Adam Lecky, but real quality for the third from captain Philip Lowry and absolute brilliance with the fourth from veteran attacker Paul Heatley.
It was fitting that the Crues took the lead in the 12th minute, as moments after that goal there was a pre-planned minute’s applause for Kaylee.
The Seaview side did her proud, racking up the biggest Irish Cup winning margin for 18 years.
Had they got one more goal – and they deserved at least that, with Ballymena boss David Jeffrey graciously admitting that his team had been outplayed – they’d have recorded the biggest Irish Cup Final winning margin since the year of the previous UK coronation, when Linfield beat Coleraine 5-0 in 1953.
At least Ballymena avoided the fate of their arch-rivals, but otherwise this was a match they’ll want to wipe from their memories.
Crusaders, rather fortunate to beat the Braidmen after extra time last year, were superior in every outfield department, and their goalkeeper Jonny Tuffey also kept out the only effort that troubled him. Tellingly, that was a misdirected header by his own centre half Daniel Larmour in the ninth minute.
The Crues had begun brightly, with Jude Winchester sending a plunging header just wide from a flicked-on corner in the fourth minute.
Ballymena probably hoped to deploy Robert McVarnock’s talents going forward on the right flank, but too often for their liking the former Newington man was pressed back into defence by the movement of Heatley.
Indeed the 35-year-old regularly occupied several Braidmen, creating space for centre-forward Lecky and also Clarke on the right.
Apart from that punch away by Tuffey from Larmour, Ballymena were struggling to put any pressure on the Crues defence.
Still, the breakthrough carried a large slice of fortune. Clarke was given room to shoot but his well-struck effort took a big deflection off Steven McCullough to leave Jordan Williamson flat-footed in the Sky Blues’ goal.
Ballymena did get into the game, but the closest they came to levelling was when skipper Joshua Kelly met a centre from Ross Redman, but headed yards wide.
Crusaders looked more likely to net the second goal of the game and Williamson twice had to save from opposing captain Lowry. The first stop, from long range, was fairly routine, but the second was more impressive, the ‘keeper recovering his ground after flapping at a cross by Jordan Forsythe.
The latter then showed his ability with both feet in quick succession, forcing a smart save with a left-foot curler, then seconds later having another go with a right-foot volley which flew narrowly wide.
A strong start to the second half paid off for the Crues, although fortune favoured the Shore Road side again.
Lecky looked to have delayed too much, but then cleverly rolled the ball across the penalty area to left-back Jarlath O’Rourke. Although his precise low shot struck the base of the post, Ballymena could not clear the rebound and it fell to Lecky, whose mis-hit effort looped over Williamson and dropped into the net.
Lowry, excellent in midfield throughout, made certain of victory with a guided downward header from a 63rd minute corner.
Five minutes later Heatley completed the rout, collecting a head-down from a colleague before bending a beautiful shot into the far top corner.
Crusaders became the first club to retain the Irish Cup in a dozen years, since they themselves lost back-to-back finals to Linfield – instead Ballymena suffered that consecutive disappointment, while the victors march on into Europe.
They did so without suspended skipper Burns, with Josh Robinson also absent, and the excellent Ben Kennedy limited to a late sub appearance by injury,
Baxter admitted involvement in continental competition is a lure to bring players to Seaview – but any newcomers will have to raise their game to get into the team if the Crues can keep producing performances of this quality.
* This victory for Crusaders means Glentoran will host Glenavon and Cliftonville will be at home to Coleraine in Wednesday night’s European play-off semi-finals (both at 7.45pm), with the winners of those two ties meeting in the play-off semi-final on Saturday, May 13 (5.30pm).
Ballymena United: Williamson; McVarnock (Place, 57), Whiteside, Wilson (Kane, 78), McCullough, Farquhar; Kelly (capt.), Graham (McGrory, 86), Redman (Gibson, 57); Waide, McDaid.
Crusaders: Tuffey; Forsythe, Larmour (Hegarty, 87), McKeown, O’Rourke; Weir (Kennedy, 87), Winchester (Caddell, 71), Lowry (capt.); Clarke (Thompson, 87), Lecky (Owens, 83), Heatley.
Referee: Tim Marshall.
Attendance: 9,688.
