Glens appeal and seek legal advice after Newry protest leads to cup exit

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Glentoran are to appeal the Irish FA's decision to expel them from the Irish Cup.

Glens defender or midfielder Joe Crowe was ruled ineligible to play in their quarter-final win over Newry City.

It's claimed he hadn't completed a three-match ban after being sent off playing for the east Belfast club's reserves.

An Irish FA statement said that it had taken the decision after a protest by Newry.

The border outfit are currently reinstated and are due to face Ballymena in the semi-finals.

The Glens have other ideas though and are prepared to take the case to court.

Manager Mick McDermott has insisted Crowe was eligible to play and lambasted the online Comet system used for registering players and listing match day line-ups as "not fit for purpose."

Victory for the Glens on the pitch on Saturday afternoon, and three precious points in the title race:

Friday night's league match had resulted in a last-gasp win for Linfield at home to Crusaders. 

A cautious start to proceedings saw both sides take some time to settle, although the Blues perhaps came closest early on when Eetu Vertainen tested Jonny Tuffey with a well struck long range effort after nine minutes.

The deadlock was broken on 20 minutes through Linfield's on loan striker Chris McKee who confidently finished past Tuffey one-on-one after getting on the end of Ahmed Salam's defence splitting pass.

But the Crues levelled just four minutes after that courtesy of Johnny McMurray's superb finish after latching onto a long ball out of defence and lifting it over the head of keeper Chris Johns.

Linfield regained the advantage in first half stoppage time. Robbie Weir was adjudged to have handed Kirk Millar's ball into the area and from the resultant spot-kick Chris Shields confidently converted into the bottom corner.

Back came Crusaders to equalise for a second time just short of the hour mark. On this occasion Jordan Forsythe rifled the ball into the area, Jimmy Callacher was ruled to have handled and Ben Kennedy stepped up to comfortably slot the penalty home.

An entertaining game, there were further chances as both sides pushed for the match winner.

Tuffey produced an outstanding reaction save to thwart Millar from close range and again with a dive to the right to keep out a Kieron Evans effort while, for the Crues, Johns turned away an acrobatic Adam Lecky attempt.

However, the winner came in the fourth minute in stoppage time when Devine powered into the box to glance Jordan Stewart's corner past Tuffey in off an upright.

Ethan Devine - last-gasp winner for Linfield

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