MANAGER'S VIEW: 'That bit of faith, that bit of desire, that bit of hunger' - Declan Caddell's delight as Crusaders climb off bottom

Crusaders now enter the final five games of the Irish League season one point ahead of Glenavon entering the post-split relegation battle.

Here’s the verdict of Crusaders boss Declan Caddell...

OVERALL PERFORMANCE...

"Last week (3-0 loss to Glenavon) I still think we were the better team up to 65 minutes...defensively we were poor.

"Today defensively we were solid, really structured, organised.

"The boys put up a great fight, great desire to keep a clean sheet...that's the most pleasing thing for me.

"It's enabled us to stop that rut that we were in from the third of January (run without a win)...that's a good point, this is a difficult place to come.

"Both sides gave it everything. "For me, we deserved to get something in the game, whether that's three points or one point.

"There was a penalty against Josh Williamson I think, he felt it was a penalty.

"One ruled off...offside. "A couple of scrambles in the box, a couple of half-chances, nothing really concrete...it's adding that wee bit to it. "All we can do is build on it.

"You always look for those positives...the last couple of months, we haven't had a lot of them, some here, some there. "The last couple of months, confidence has been low.

"It's been low and you've probably seen that in performances and how we play it.

"That (point) is something that will give the players confidence to move on."

OFF BOTTOM SPOT...

"There's still a lot to play for...five games, five tough games coming up. "They're all 50-50 games, if you turn up, you can get something out of it. "So it's good to get our foot back in front...still a long way to go and difficult matches ahead, so we'll bank it. "And all we can do is build on that performance.

"Whether you're bottom or second bottom, someone's on your heels. "But the good thing is that the players responded today.

"I always think it's probably easier chasing a team ahead of you than being chased.

"And I think we've seen that today.

"That's a performance that can build confidence on, as I said, I thought we dominated large parts of the game, a lot of the pressure was with us. "In general, today, I thought we'd done enough to win the game."

COLLECTIVE REACTION...

"Players trained well, players always train well, week in, week out.

"We went through a really bad run in January in terms of playing the top four or five teams in a row, which didn't help confidence.

"Probably the past couple of weeks we've been playing a lot individually...today it was a real collective performance.

"It's things that we've been lacking the past couple of months...that bit of faith, that bit of desire, that bit of hunger to leave everything on the pitch, which all the players did today.

"Even the boys coming on...Evan Easton was probably disappointed he didn't start, Jacob Blaney's forced off, Evan stepped in.

"They're all pulling the same way, that's the main thing.

"Robbie Weir coming back into the team...we've missed him massively all season.

"Today we just didn't take our chances."