Ross Clarke: Crusaders want to give manager Stephen Baxter a fitting send-off by securing European football

​Baxter, who has been in charge at Seaview for 19 years and racked up almost 1,000 matches, announced earlier this month that he’d be stepping down at the end of the campaign.

The 58-year-old has won 17 trophies and delivered European football on 12 occasions, setting up memorable fixtures against the likes of Fulham and Wolves.

With a fourth league title beyond their reach and a bid for a third consecutive Irish Cup success ended by Ards, the Crues are fully focused on winning the play-off and Clarke admits the whole changing room want to give Baxter “what he deserves”.

"We know how important Europe is for the club,” he said. “It can be lucrative and it could be the foundation for a new manager to come in and start his career as Crusaders boss with a European run, which would be phenomenal.

"Stevie deserves that send-off so we have the extra motivation to do everything we can to make sure he gets what he deserves.

"He’s done so much for me, he has brought every player in that changing room to the club and we really have to do everything we can for him while he’s here and enjoy it.

"You can see where he started with the club, what he has done and where we are now. That’s not through luck.

"A lot of us wouldn’t have these amazing experiences without that man in charge to keep the club into a position to compete.

"A lot of our players have played in Europe and we all know what these experiences mean so there’s a lot of motivation to go out and make it happen.”