Crusaders had been off colour of late but were on it from the start in the victory against Coleraine, says delighted Stephen Baxter

In a match in which they dominated, the Irish Cup holders would hit four goals without reply as Philip Lowry, Ben Kennedy, Daniel Larmour and Jarlath O'Rourke all found the back of the net.

The result was the perfect response to the midweek defeat to Linfield as Baxter's boys kept tabs with the teams above them in the standings.

“I think we were on it from the start today,” the Crues chief said.

“We allowed Coleraine no space to play and we made sure there were no spaces in behind us.

“We were quicker to the ball today, I think our midfield was so good and Philip Lowry had his best game of the season as I thought he was magnificent.

“When you bring that to the party and your top players start playing the way they can do, as they’ve been off colour the last few weeks by their own admission, when you get them playing the way they can, then they’re a handful for anybody.

“Once we got into our playing rhythm and worked out what we were trying to do, we were very comfortable in what we set out to do.

“We scored four goals and could have scored three more if it wasn’t for a few great saves by Martin Gallagher."

Lowry’s opener arrived with 14 minutes on the clock and it took Crusaders until the 81st minute to add to their tally as Kennedy pounced – however Baxter was always confident his troops would eventually turn chances into goals.

“At 1-0 or even 2-0 up, it’s never a comfortable position to find yourself in,” he added.

“We turned Coleraine on the wind, we did a lot of work in the weather in the first-half and then turned them on that.

“I was very confident we would go on and win the game in the second-half as the chances would open up.

“We spoke about that at half-time and when the chances were flowing that we would take them to win the game.

“We weren’t sitting back at 1-0 saying ‘that will do us’, we wanted to get those extra goals to win the game."