A catastrophic moment in defence caused the new look Glens to drop all 3 points at the Bet McClean Oval this evening in our first Sports Direct Premiership game of the new season.
Without the suspended Fuad Sule and the injured Johnny Russell and Marcus Kane, Declan Devine started with a 3-5-2 line-up that included 4 new signings making their debuts – Danial Gyollai, Frankie Hvid, Dylan Connolly and Wassim. James Singleton in midfield was captain.
The Glens started confidently and had the best of the early exchanges, including the first real chance of the game when great link up play between Wassim and David Fisher ended with a good effort from Fisher well saved by Jonny Tuffey in the Crues goal.
The game turned upside down on 21 minutes due to a comedy of errors in the home defence. Firstly Frankie Hvid passed back to the keeper but the pass was too short forcing Gyollai to come out to confront the inrushing Kieran Offord. The 2 clashed and the ball bounced free. That should have been okay but no defender cleared the ball decisively leaving the goal completely open for Offord to tap home.
Bar a couple of straightforward saves at either end this was the only talking point of a half that simply petered out without major incident..
Half time: Glentoran 0-1 Crusaders
The second half was again virtually devoid of incident or even a serious attack on goal from either side. At different points in the half Declan Devine introduced Charlie Lindsay, Cammy Palmer, Jordan Jenkins and young Leon Boyd. These subs – particularly Palmer and the hard-working Jenkins – contributed strongly but the Glens m=never looked remotely like creating an equaliser. There was little between the sides but a well drilled Crues defence stopped the Glens creating any meaningful chances or even finding space to do so,
So a disappointing start to the season. Next up is a visit to Shamrock Park to play Portadown next Saturday, 17th August.
Full time: Glentoran 0-1 Crusaders
Glentoran: Gyollai, Murphy (Lindsay 46), Hvid, McClean, Kelly, Singleton ©, McGinn, Connolly (Boyd). J Donnelly (Palmer 62), Wassim (Jenkins 62), Fisher .
Subs (Not used): Mills, Farley, Douglas