Saturday 27 January
Kick Off 3.00pm
On Saturday we travel to Seaview for the second time in five days to face Crusaders for the fourth time this season. All three of the previous games finished as draws. With the County Antrim Shield first round a Glens win on penalties.
After beginning the season with high hopes of challenging for the title – inspired by impressive European performances – the Crues have found them selves both out of contention for the Sports Direct Premiership and out of the Clearer Water Irish Cup by early January. They have lost four of their last five league games and picked up only three wins from their last ten to now occupy fifth place in the table, level on points with us but having played two games more due to our recent postponements.
In the previous league game at Seaview, Jay Donnelly put the Glens ahead on 35 minutes, a lead held until Philip Lowry’s stoppage time equaliser. Despite Josh Robinson’s sending off early in the second half, Crusaders comfortably saw out the game to secure a point. Last season both sides claimed a win at Seaview.
Defensive injuries have hampered Stephen Baxter this season, with the experienced Jimmy Callacher, Rory McKeown and now Josh Robinson ruled out. This has led to the transfer window arrival of Kevin Joshua from York City to cover the defensive gap plus attacking midfielder Stuart Nixon arriving from Carrick Ranger and James Teelan going the other way. Nixon made his first start in last week’s 1-0 away defeat to Linfield.
Warren Feeney: “We know what to expect at Seaview on Saturday. The Crues are a very good, physical team and despite a few poor results they played very well against Linfield last week and were unluck to lose that one. I’m looking forward to it as a win over a good team will help the boys get over the disappointment of losing the Shield Final. I want to thank our supporters as I thought they were great on Tuesday night. The players did very well in a very even match, but a couple of incidents of poor defending was ultimately the difference between the two teams. So a strong performance and win over a good team on Saturday is what we need to get ourselves back on track.”
Tickets can be purchased HERE from the Crusaders website.
