Crusaders manager Declan Caddell highlighted Jacob Blaney as “one of our players of the season” after enjoying an impressive debut Irish League campaign and has called on his side to produce a final push in their bid to secure a top-half Premiership finish.

Caddell’s men enter Friday’s home clash with champions-elect Linfield as the top-flight’s in-form team – no side has collected more points across the last five league matches than Crusaders (12) while none have scored more (nine) during that period either.

The Crues will look to bounce back from an Irish Cup quarter-final exit to North Belfast rivals Cliftonville by strengthening their position in the top-six race against the Blues, who have remarkably only lost one of 14 away league matches this term – form which has laid the foundations for their whopping 16-point advantage at the summit.

Last summer, Caddell opted to look outside the Irish League for reinforcements as Kieran Offord, Harry Franklin, Harry Jewitt-White and Blaney arrived without prior Premiership experience, but all have played an important role.

placeholder image — Crusaders manager Declan Caddell. (Photo by Inpho/Stephen Hamilton)

Offord will make his return to Seaview after scoring 10 league goals for the Crues before making a permanent six-figure switch to Linfield from St Mirren in January while fellow Scottish ace Blaney has been an ever-present since joining from Hibernian, making 28 league appearances across a range of positions.

Alongside being a solid defensive presence, the 20-year-old has also provided a threat in the opposition box, scoring three times in his last seven league outings, including in wins over Coleraine and Ballymena United.

"For me, he has probably been one of our players of the season,” Caddell told the club’s media channel. “He has filtered into any position I've needed him to. All of the players did well last weekend and I can't fault any of them.

"We're very disappointed, the changing room is very disappointed because that was a sore one to take, but we have to go again.

"They've been exceptional the past month, really, really good and we're looking for a big push now until the end of the season.

"It's back to Linfield and it's probably a blessing it's Linfield coming here. It was a big atmosphere, big crowd (against Cliftonville) and we have something similar on Friday."

There’s little room for error as a host of clubs chase a top-half position, which guarantees progression into the end-of-season European play-offs, with only nine points separating third-placed Dungannon Swifts and Ballymena in tenth.

The Crues will finish their pre-split schedule against Linfield, Loughgall and Glentoran, and Caddell has challenged his side to finish as high up the table as possible.

"You always have to go for the biggest push you can and that has been the same from the start of the season,” he added. “We want to finish as high as we can.

"We put a really good run together in February, winning six out of our last eight now after Saturday.

"The boys are playing well, fighting for the shirt and we're getting a few bodies back.

"It's nice to see Alex King involved, Lloyd Anderson should be pushing as well, so we're starting to get those bodies back which is ideal for this time of the season.

"We've big fixtures coming up and we need a big push in these three games up to the split and then after the split see where we are to have a go at it for the play-offs."