Premiership's in-form team hold 'everything to play for' mentality just weeks after 'it was all doom and gloom'
Crusaders manager Declan Caddell says his side have “everything to play for” after they further strengthened their top-six Premiership hopes by extending an unbeaten run to three matches ahead of Saturday’s Irish Cup quarter-final showdown with Cliftonville.
The Crues are currently the Premiership’s in-form outfit – no team has collected more points than Caddell’s side (12) across the last five matches played by each side while none can boast a better goalscoring run either with the Seaview outfit netting nine times in that period.
Caddell’s men now sit fourth, level on points with third-placed Dungannon Swifts and just two adrift of Glentoran, who have played two games less.
Alongside their ambition to finish in the top-half, Crusaders will also have targets set on securing European football for next season via the Irish Cup – the winner of that competition goes straight into the second round of UEFA Conference League qualifying, which guarantees a financial windfall of at least €350,000.
They host North Belfast rivals – and reigning champions – Cliftonville this weekend on the back of winning six of their last seven matches across all competitions, the sole blemish on that run being a narrow 2-1 defeat to Linfield, and Caddell’s full focus is on the task ahead rather than looking at future possibilities.
"You concentrate one week at a time,” he told BBC Sportsound. “(The Irish Cup game) gives us that bit of a breather to relax from the league a bit.
"We've three huge games with Linfield, Loughgall and finish away to Glentoran in the last game before the split.
"There's everything to play for and so many teams in the mix who are chasing a top-six position...anything can happen.
"I look back four or five weeks ago and we were sitting in tenth place and it was all doom and gloom - suddenly you put a run together and you move up into third or fourth alongside Dungannon.
"Glentoran are probably in our sights, but we don't think that far ahead.
"We will rest and recover going into the weekend and have full focus on Cliftonville in the Irish Cup. Once that's over then we will move onto Linfield which is another huge game."