Bore draw at Seaview

The Shore Road team’s miserable run of results continued in 90 minutes of total boredom at Seaview.

It means that both Crusaders and Cliftonville now trail Danske Bank Premiership leaders by a whopping 10 points with only eight games left – at least the Reds have the Irish Cup to fall back on as a possible route to European football.

Crusaders have now failed to win in five games which has resulted in them not only playing catch-up in the league table, but they are still wobbling from a League Cup final defeat, while their Irish Cup interested was washed down the tubes against Glentoran in east Belfast at the weekend.

Manager Stephen Baxter was dismissed at the Oval along with goalkeeper Gerard Doherty and midfielder Jordan Forsythe.

It was no surprise that Baxter made a staggering seven changes to starting line-up – only Billy Joe Burns, Paul Heatley, Rodney Brown and Jordan Owens survived the chop.

Rival boss, Paddy McLaughlin made only one alteration from the team that defeated – defender Garry Breen replacing Donal Rocks.

The Reds roared from the traps with Conor McMenamin trying his luck with a speculative 25-yard shot following an impressive piece of play on the left by Michael McCrudden.

Oozing with confidence, Joe Gormley then gobbled up a long punt forward from Jamie Harney and he also lashed one in from distance with an outrageous volley that fizzed well over the top.

Cliftonville did have the ball in the net on 17 minutes when Aaron Donnelly’s corner kick was pumped back into the penalty box by Garry Breen, but his defensive sidekick Jamie Harney had strayed offside before he flicked the ball past Sean O’Neill.

Crusaders had to wait until 35 minutes for their first sniff at goal when Paul Heatley was abruptly hauled down by Harney.

The little striker’s free kick was met by defender Chris Hegarty, whose low shot was brilliantly pawed to safety by the alert Richard Brush.

From Heatley’s resulting corner kick, big Jordan Owens climbed high only to head over the crossbar, from merely six yards.

The home team upped the tempo as the half-time whistle approached and Brush again earned his wages when he got down to superbly hold on to a wickedly hit drive from Paul McElroy.

Crusaders came within inches of breaking the deadlock on 54 minutes.

Michael Ruddy whipped in a cross from the left that was met by Owens, but his thumping header crashed off a post.

But the Reds responded in a positive manner and the usually lethal Gormley missed a sitter just on the hour.

Harney’s searching pass picked out the big striker. His first touch was immaculate, but he could only screw the second past the post with only O’Neill to beat.

In one last desperate push, the Crues almost won it on 89 minutes when only for Hegarty’s header of graze the post following Heatley’s free kick.

CRUSADERS: O’Neill, Burns (Dummingan 73), Hegarty, Lowry, Hale, Caddell, Ruddy, Owens, Brown, Heatley, McElroy (McGonigle 82).

Unused subs: Shields, Cushley, O’Rourke, Thompson, McGinley.

CLIFTONVILLE: Brush, McDermott, Breen, Harney, C Curran (Rocks 80), R Curran, McCrudden (Maguire 89), Doherty, Gormley, McMenamin, Donnelly.

Unused subs: Dunne, Foster, Bagnall, Casey, McCurry.

REFEREE: Raymond Crangle.