'It was a goal all day. It’s a goal - what part of it is not a goal?' - Crusaders chief Stephen Baxter left frustrated with number of decisions during Glentoran defeat

The main controversy of the match came in the 76th minute when Ben Kennedy headed home from Stewart Nixon’s cross to give the hosts an apparent equaliser after David Fisher’s early strike, but referee Tim Marshall had blown for a free-kick following a foul on Nixon and brought play back, meaning Kennedy’s goal didn’t stand.

They did get back on level terms five minutes later as Nixon netted his first goal since arriving from Carrick Rangers earlier this month, only for Bobby Burns to strike in the dying moments to seal Glentoran victory.

It’s not the first time this month that decisions have irked Baxter with his side denied a penalty during their 2-0 home defeat against Larne and the Crues chief was once again left displeased.

"It was a goal all day. It’s a goal - what part of it is not a goal?” he said of Kennedy’s header. “The ball is put into the box and there’s a nick on the lad which would be a free-kick, but in all circumstances you play that as an advantage.

"The ball comes into the box, we head it into the net and it’s a goal, but we didn’t get it. We didn’t get two penalty decisions here today.

"People will say that I’m moaning about it and here are the excuses coming – it’s not excuses. You’re all here watching the game same as me and everybody in the stand can see it, but the referee and his officials didn’t see it.

"They are the ones that matter and they didn’t give it so that’s it.”

When asked about the prospect of introducing VAR into the Irish League to help deal with controversial calls, Baxter added: "(VAR) won’t come because they haven’t got the money for it in Northern Ireland, so it’s not going to come. It’s not going to happen.”

Despite falling to what was a fourth consecutive Premiership defeat, Baxter felt his side, who will now have two weeks off before resuming league action against Dungannon Swifts on February 10, performed admirably.

"The team were very, very good here today,” he said. “We were on the front foot, pushing hard, dominating large parts of this game and putting Glentoran under a lot of pressure.

"Pressure doesn’t get you three points and we didn’t get the break of the ball at the right time, a couple of decisions didn’t go our way and we didn’t see the game through when we got the equaliser.”