Warren Feeney starting to see the fruits of Glentoran's labour ahead of crunch Crusaders clash

Since returning to Irish League management this summer, Feeney has led the Glens to two league wins over Glenavon and Loughgall while they also suffered a narrow 2-1 defeat to reigning champions Larne in their last home outing.

Despite being so early in the season, the visit of Stephen Baxter’s unbeaten Crues side marks another crucial encounter for the east Belfast outfit with many tipping both sides to mount a Premiership title challenge.

Crusaders have started with victories over Ballymena United and Dungannon Swifts.

Feeney is currently dealing with an extensive injury list as defenders Paddy McClean, Aidan Wilson and Rhys Marshall all sat out of Tuesday’s 1-0 win at Lakeview Park while Aaron Wightman was forced off in the second-half.

The 42-year-old was able to take a number of positives from their performance against Loughgall as Niall McGinn and Daire O’Connor combined to seal victory.

"We do (see positive signs),” he said. “The big thing is keeping players fit now.

"You're getting players in and then players are getting injured and that's the big worry at this moment in time.

"We have to dust ourselves down but we played some good football - we played into the midfield, we played out wide.

"It was a great goal and piece of pressure from Niall McGinn and we had that bit of quality to come away with it."

The occupants of last season’s top-six are once again in those positions with Crusaders, Cliftonville and Linfield making perfect starts while Larne remain unbeaten.

Having recently managed in England and Bulgaria, Feeney says the Irish League he has arrived back to is much-improved from the one he left in 2019 after his stint with Ards and isn’t taking any opponent for granted.

"The league has definitely got better,” he added. "There are good quality players that had careers in England who want to come home and play.

"Moving forward, it's great for the league.

"People talk about a top and bottom six, but we were talking in there before and I think Larne took 51 points out of 54 from the bottom-six last year which is a big thing.

"You can see how competitive it can be. (Loughgall) gave Coleraine a really good game and Glenavon went to the National Stadium and lost 4-2 with two penalties.

"Carrick beat Coleraine - on any one day anybody can beat anybody. It's a stronger league and better league for everyone."

O’Connor opened his league goal account on Tuesday and Feeney is hoping to see much more of that in the coming weeks.

"Daire is a good player,” he said. “You can see he puts people on the back foot and he has ability.

"You always want your attackers and strikers to score goals and I was pleased that he was in the right place at the right time to tap it in."