NI Premiership Round-up - Easter Weekend
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Cliftonville need one more point from their last five fixtures to claim their first league title since 1998 after two victories over the holiday weekend with the most significant coming in a 3-1 win over their second placed Crusaders at Solitude on Tuesday afternoon.
Crusaders briefly reignited their fading championship dream when Timmy Adamson nipped in to prod them into a first half lead but Liam Boyce’s vicious free kick on the hour evened things up before Barry Johnston gave the Reds the lead six minutes later.
Liam Boyce, the league’s outstanding performer this season, made sure of the points in injury time when he raced away and coolly slotted the ball past Yohann Lacroix to all but seal the championship for the North Belfast side.
Both teams had recorded victories on the Saturday previous with Boyce again to the fore as his two strikes bookended goals from Ronan Scannell, Stephen Garrett and Ciaran Caldwell as Tommy Breslin’s men ran out easy 5-0 winners over Ballymena United. Crusaders also scored five but conceded four to Glentoran in a thriller at the Oval.
Cliftonville could now be crowned champions in their next league fixture at home to Linfield on the 13th of April. The Blues look to have consolidated third place after a 0-0 draw with Ballinamallard United on Saturday and a single goal victory over Glentoran in the “Big Two” derby at Windsor Park on Tuesday afternoon. Peter Thompson got the only goal of the game after just two minutes and that was enough for David Jeffreys’ team despite a spirited second half display from Glentoran.
The battle to avoid relegation took an unexpected turn when Donegal Celtic were deducted three points for fielding an illegal player in their victory over Lisburn Distillery the last time the teams met but Celtic made up for that set back, and restored the five point gap at the bottom, when Stephen O’Neill’s goal gave them victory at Distillery.
The two teams had come into the game on the back of draws on the previous Saturday with Celtic playing out a goalless encounter with Dungannon Swifts and Lisburn sharing the spoils with a 1-1 score line against Portadown who were buoyed by the return, as substitute, of Gary Twigg.
The former Shamrock Rovers striker was restored to the starting line-up against Ballymena United for the Tuesday game and scored his side’s only goal in a 6-1 hammering as Ronnie McFall elected to rest a number of first team regulars in preparation for next week’s Irish Cup semi-final with Glentoran.
