Report By Glenn Kelly
Crusaders moved to second in the Danske Bank Premiership after a thrilling 3-2 victory over Glentoran at Seaview.
In front of a close-to capacity crowd, a fiery game burst into life from the first whistle with both sides showing attacking intent. Adam Lecky made it 1-0 on four minutes heading home a cross from Paul Heatley. However, just two minutes later Daniel Purkis got an equaliser for the Glens latching onto an excellent through ball. Crusaders regained the lead on 24 minutes from the head of Chris Hegarty. Five minutes into the second period Jay Donnelly poked in a second equaliser before Hearty got his second to seal victory.
Crusader’s Stephen Baxter made four changes to his starting lineup from the 0-0 draw with Linfield last time out, Hegarty, Jordan Forsythe, Jude Winchester and Gary Thompson coming into the side. Glentoran made only two changes to their side with Bobby Burns and Purkis starting.
The Seaview men began the day two points adrift of their opponents in the table but having played two games more. The Crues were hoping to avenge the 3-1 defeat at the hands of Michael McDermott’s men at the Oval in August.
After a frenetic start, Adam Lecky opened the scoring for the home side. Ross Clarke played a pin-point through ball which Heatley latched onto down the left before crossing for Lecky to head home at the back post.
Crusaders failed to hold onto their lead however and just two minutes later Purkis equalised for the visitors. The striker making no mistake after an excellent through ball courtesy of Burns, firing home inside the near post from 12 yards.
The end-to-end nature of the game continued with both sides threatening, but it was the Crues that regained the lead in the 24th minute with Hegarty powerfully heading home from six yards from a Ross Clarke corner, Aaron McCarey in the Glentoran goal getting a hand to the ball but not enough to keep it out. The half ended 2-1 to the hosts.
If the first half was fast-paced, the second continued the theme with barely a chance for breath for the excited crowd. Just five minutes in, a Burns corner for Glentoran was not dealt with by the Crues defence; James Singleton struck a low drive from the edge of the box which was flicked home by Jay Donnelly to bring the scores level once more.
Not to be outdone, Crusaders re-took the lead just eight minutes later. A Lecky header struck the crossbar, before the Crues recycled the ball back into the box, Lecky improvised with a fantastic overhead kick to the back post where man-of-the-match Hegarty crouched to head low into the bottom left hand corner of the net much to the delight of the home crowd.