Crossan savours wonder brace

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Matthew Crossan was one of the last members of the travelling Finn Harps party to leave the Brandywell on Friday night, and right he was.

Having just scored two of the most picture-perfect goals in front of a packed and expectant Derry City crowd, the defender was in no panic to rush away from the scene of what will no doubt be one of the most storied in years to come.

Living just out the road from the Brandywell in Killea, Crossan knows only too well the significance of what his blockbuster strikes might've done for Derry’s promotion charge.

“They’re obviously two good goals and I suppose it’s all the sweeter when you get them in the Brandywell and me only living out the road. You’ll take them two any day,” said a modest, yet very happy, Crossan after the game.

The full-back felt it was the best display Harps put on all year where they portrayed both sides of the game wonderfully.

He said: “A draw was probably a fair enough result when you look at the chances that both sides created. It was a great game of football; we had chances go across the line, so did they. We pretty much just went for it. We played some fantastic football, probably the best we played all season.

“We could have sat there with two banks of four and stopped them playing but we didn’t. We went for the game and it paid off with a great result. Obviously, the second half they went for it by throwing an extra man up top – I think at one stage they might’ve had four up front.

“It could have been easy for us to go into the corners and the stop the game from being played but we didn’t do that. There were times when we had to grind it out but we done that no problem,” added the stylish defender.

Crossan now hopes to conclude the season on a high – having taken four points from two teams above them in the table in the last fortnight – when they welcome Mervue United to Finn Park for the final game of the 2010 campaign this Saturday.

“Last week we had the first clean sheet in a while; this week we got a good 2-2 draw and although it’s the second last game of the season, it’s a good morale boost going into our last game of the season and hopefully now we can finish on a wee bit of a high.

“Looking at it before the Cork game, for sure we would have taken seven points from our last nine no bother. We had a clean sheet against Cork, a great performance tonight against Derry and home against Mervue you’d like to think we can pick up three points there, too,” he said.