Hayes’ men march on!
Saturday afternoon at Whitfield Park saw our 2B squad entertain nearby rivals St. Saviours in what was an outstanding game, with open free-flowing football across the 90 minutes. Despite missing several players due to injury, foreign sporting and work commitments, Crusaders still managed, such is the depth of Eoin Hayes’ squad, to put out a strong starting XI.
The markers were laid down an hour before kick off, with Saviours arriving in numbers to the grounds in time to watch Chairperson McGrath add the finishing touches to his playing surface, the manicured rye-grass and laser-straight touchlines serving as a comparison to the immaculately coiffed Clonard Park brigade.
Pre-match warm-ups saw a “Mill at the Hill-esque” situation narrowly avoided as the Saviours squad, large, loud and imposing, consume 80% of the training space available. However, since Pope Urban II’s initial campaign to capture Jerusalem, one of the long-heralded traits of a crusader is that of discipline, and such gamesmanship was never likely to affect Halpin’s legion.
And so it came to pass. The home side threatened early with a spate of runs which had the Saviours centre-halves’ ankles stretched before the first goal arrived on five minutes. A vicious inswinging corner from the left boot of Ben Kavanagh did the damage, helped on its way past the stationary defence by the head of a Saviours defender.
The remainder of the first half saw a blue and red blur as chance-after-chance was created by the Whitfield men, with Saviours’ keeper performing miracles. Two of the key men inflicting the damage, Ray Balogun and Zak O’Connor, will be the reason for several sweaty sleep interruptions within the Saviours defence over the coming months.
After 35 minutes, another corner – this time from Ben Brophy’s boot – hung invitingly in the air before being finished from point blank range by Zak. 2-0, and coasting.
Much of the 2nd half followed the same pattern, with Saviours’ keeper managing to keep Crusaders out after seeing their defence breached time after time. However, a lifeline was thrown to the visitors on 71 minutes when one of their substitutes ran through on an inviting pass to set up a grandstand finish.
And what a final few minutes we had. In the 90th minute, Crusaders went down to 10 men when Cian O’Neill was sent to the line for a handball on the line. Whilst this was a highly subjective outcome, one couldn’t blame the excellent referee Noel Purcell for his decision. However, the outcome of a red card and penalty threatened to undo all of the Crusaders’ hard work. Despite Paddy’s best efforts, Saviours slotted the resultant penalty to make it 2-2.
Then, as the clock entered the red, some sloppy defensive play resulted in a free to Crusaders some 25 yards from the goal. As the referee checked his watch, he indicated there was just enough time to complete the set piece.
Enter Ben Brophy. The man with impeccable timing, with a habit of finding the net at the right time. Ben doesn’t do tap-ins. His free kick cleared the four-man wall, darting up and down through the air like a homeless sparrow and rocketed past the outstretched keeper to trigger rapturous celebrations and a fitting result to a great game, one played in a fair and sporting manner throughout.
As the visiting players nobly shook their victorious opponents’ hands before departing Butlerstown pointless for the 2nd season in a row, Hayes and his team immediately shifted focus to this coming Wednesday’s away trip to Abbeyside.
Crusaders AFC 
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