IT was a point apiece for Larne and Crusaders in front of the Sky Sports cameras at Inver Park.
In the driving wind and rain neither side were able to break the deadlock, leaving the spoils to be shared in a goalless draw.
The game had a quiet opening spell, with neither side looking overly dangerous.
With 20 minutes on the clock, Paul Heatley tried his luck from distance, however it drifted comfortably wide of Conor Devlin’s right hand post.
Twelve minutes later, Heatley was again in the thick of the action. Crusaders forced a number of corners, and their latest found the Crusaders danger man on the edge of the box, but his half volley was wide of the same post as earlier.
Larne’s first opportunity to break the deadlock came on 32 minutes, as Davy McDaid’s shot from a tight angle on the left drifted wide of the target.
The first effort on target arrived two minutes into the second half, with Declan Caddell firing an effort from almost 25 yards out, but Devlin was down low to his left to make a smart save.
Two minutes before the hour mark Harry Flowers cleared an effort over his own bar, from a dangerous Jamie McGonigle cross on the right.
Right at the end of the game, the home side felt they should have had a penalty when Johnny McMurray’s shot from 15 yards struck Billy Joe Burns. Despite strong appeals for a handball, referee Keith Kennedy waved play on as both sides had to make do with a point.
The draw moves Larne four points clear of Ballymena United, in sixth place.
Larne: Devlin, Flowers, Kelly, Watson, Sule, McDaid, Tilney (Donnelly ’54), Lynch (Randall ’59), Cosgrove, Hughes, McMurray
Unused subs: Mitchell, Ramsey, McKendry, Andrade, Gilmour
Crusaders: Doherty, Burns, Coates, Lowry, McGonigle (J Owens ’73), Hale, Caddell, Forsythe, Ruddy, Heatley (Cushley ’73), Clarke
Unused subs: O’Neill, Beverland, O’Rourke, Thompson, McElroy
Referee: Keith Kennedy
Photograph: Bill Guiller
