Saturday 29th April 2023
Kick Off 5.30pm
On Saturday, we end the normal 38 game Danske Bank Premiership campaign with a visit to Seaview with third place secured but everything to play for in our quest for second place and automatic Europa League qualification.
Since defeating Dungannon in the Irish Cup Semi Final earlier this month, Crusaders have 1 win, 1 defeat and 2 draws in their 4 post-split fixtures, leaving them in 5th place but with the opportunity to take 4th if they can better Cliftonville’s result in their game against Linfield.
An injury time Paul Heatley goal ensured a share of the points when they met their North Belfast rivals at Solitude last week, a game in which the Crues took a first minute lead in but later twice fell behind in.
Honours are even between the 2 sides this season, as in 4 games across all Competitions each side has won twice: the Glens winning both league fixtures at the Oval (3–1 and 2-0 respectively) and Crusaders winning the previous league meeting at Seaview in December before triumphing again on home turf in the Irish Cup Quarter Final last month.
Manager Stephen Baxter will again be without defender Billy Joe Burns, with the experienced Right Back serving the 2nd game of a 3-match ban which will also see him miss the Final against Ballymena United. It is possible Baxter may decide to rest some key personnel in light of the upcoming showpiece match; top scorer Philip Lowry, defender Josh Robinson and midfielder Jordan Forsythe were left out of the squad for the Reds game, while regular forward Adam Leckey was only used as a substitute, with veteran striker Jordan Owens chosen to lead the line.
Rodney McAree: “Last week’s 3-0 win over Coleraine was the result of another great start and an outstanding team performance in the first 45 minutes. The whole team played very well and the finishes for each of the three goals were of the highest standard. The second half was sadly overshadowed by the terrible injury to Adam Mullan and I wish him all the very best for a full recovery following his surgery.
The big thing we needed to achieve last week was to have something to play for in the last regular league game this Saturday. We did that with a very convincing performance and result. But other teams’ results will mean nothing to us if we don’t been Crusaders at Seaview and I’ve been emphasising that to the players this week. I’ve seen a lot of speculation on what team Crusaders will send out pre–Cup Final but I’m not taking that seriously. Stephen will do what he thinks is right for Crusaders but he has a very good squad with a lot of very experienced Irish League players, some of whom will be hoping to force their way into the cup squad. So whatever team he sends out will be a strong one and we’ll need to be at our best to beat them.
Given that we know what we need to do on Saturday we’ve had a nice and very productive week in training with a lot of positive attitudes and togetherness as we prepared ourselves, Hopefully Moko will be available to join the squad and Singo has been fine in training after missing the Coleraine game. “
SUPPORTER BEHAVIOUR
Following the club’s announcement last week, it is important to remind all our supporters that the following behaviour will not be tolerated at Seaview or any other stadium:
- Use of flares or other form of pyrotechnics in any area of the stadium
- Supporter encroachment onto any area of play before, during or after a match. This is both a breach of ground regulations and a criminal offence.
The club has received fines in the past for the use of flares by supporters and for supporter encroachment and will not accept any form of behaviour that risks further penalties. There will be a zero-tolerance approach taken to any unacceptable or illegal behaviour.
