Stephen Baxter has been a great credit to the Irish League and he will want to secure European football for the Crues, says Jeff Spiers as Hatchetmen secure 4th spot in the Premiership

The Crues chief racked up 950 games in charge of the north Belfast side in fine style as they recorded a 2-0 win at Coleraine, which secured 4th spot in the Sports Direct Premiership.

The result means Crusaders will be guaranteed home advantage for their European play-off semi-final - against either Carrick Rangers or Dungannon Swifts - as well as the final if they can progress.

The win at Coleraine was secured via two first-half goals as Daniel Larmour broke the deadlock on 20 minutes as he scrambled the ball home following a melee in the box following a corner.

Just before the half-time whistle, Crusaders would be awarded a penalty as Adam Lecky was fouled inside the box by Lyndon Kane. That allowed Jordan Forsythe to net from the spot to put the visitors firmly in the driving seat.

The Crues were largely comfortable throughout the 90 minutes and almost had a third goal to celebrate but Coleraine stopper Rory Brown kept out Stewart Nixon's header.

Baxter will leave the Seaview hotseat in the summer after 19 years in charge which has yielded numerous trophies, with former midfielder Declan Caddell already confirmed as his replacement.

"It's an unbelievable record for Stephen," Spiers said.

"He's been a credit to the Irish League and we still hopefully have three games to go.

"I know with how he acts that he wants us to win every one of them. He's been here 19 years and managed 950 games which will not happen again for a long, long time.

"We're just concentrating on the last three games as it's in Stephen's nature to win.

"He wasn't coming up here today to get a point, he wanted the win and we were able to achieve that.

"I know he will demand everything from the players for the final three games."

At one point it looked like Crusaders had no chance of catching Glentoran for 4th but Spiers says the players deserve great credit for going on a consistent run at the business end of the season.

He added: "It was a good job with a couple of good goals in the first-half.

"To be fair, Coleraine didn't overly bother us in the second-half and we managed the game well.

"4th place is what we've been playing for in the last few weeks which we've now secured, so we've got ten days now to prepare for a European play-off semi-final.

"People were telling us the result of the Cliftonville vs Glentoran match and we knew all we had to do was match the Glentoran result.

"I think we've only lost one out of our last nine or ten games.

"We were six points behind Glentoran at one point but we've gone on a fantastic run and that's all the credit to the players for all the work they've done in that time frame."