Crusaders’ can dream as Paul Heatley scored the only goal to put the north Belfast side through 1-0 (3-2 agg.) in their second leg tie with F.C Haka of Finland. The win means the Crues now play Rosenborg of Norway next Thursday with the first leg to be played at Seaview. The Crues dominated for large swathes of the game and Jonny Tuffey in goal was only tested in the dying minutes.
The opening period of the game was all about pressure from the home side whereas the “Finns” struggled to get up to speed, Stephen Baxter’s charges wasted little time making an impact with Paul Heatley and Ross Clarke having success down either flank and Adam Lecky dominated in the air. However this pressure was not turned into an avalanche of chances. The first chance of the game fell the way of Adam Lecky. A free-kick from the right by way of Clarke reached the head of the tall striker, however he could only manage to flick the ball on and in doing so took the ball away from the on-charging Daniel Larmour behind. Haka appeared to intently up their fighting spirit from last week, with a number of tough challenges in an attempt to unsettle the hosts; Captain Billy Joe Burns was unfortunate to be on the receiving end of most. The visitors finally threatened four minutes before the break. A free-kick from the left made its way to the back post where Logan Rogerson managed to get an effort away, but the excellent Daniel Larmour made a timely challenge to clear. Jordan Forsythe had a header sail just over a minute later as neither side broke the deadlock at the whistle.
Crusaders were not going to let up as the sides emerged for the second half with the hosts seemingly even more intent on scoring the opener, and they created a raft of chances in the opening 15 minutes. First Philip Lowry chased onto a Paul Heatley through ball but despite beating the keeper with his effort a defender chased back to clear from the line. On 57 minutes Paul Heatley came closest to finding the net with the winger smashing the ball off the left upright from 12 yards and just a minute later he could only blaze over from the same location. But Paul Heatley never gives up and got his rewards on 73 minutes. Hesitation by defender Anthony Herbert was punished by the veteran as he pinched the ball and raced in on goal before lifting it over the advancing keeper Aatu Hakala into the net to make it 1-0. As time ran out FC Haka were limited to long range efforts that could only trouble the Shore Road traffic behind the goal. The final whistle brought fantastic scenes as the loyal home support erupted
Crusaders: J.Tuffey, BJ.Burns (J.Winchester 64’), P.Lowry, B.Kennedy (J.Callacher 90’), A.Lecky (J.Owens 64’), J.Forsythe, J.O’Rourke, D.Larmour, P.Heatley, R.McKeown, R.Clarke (R.Weir 84’)