Irish Premiership: Baxter praises 'top-drawer' Crues as McAree blasts Glentoran

Stephen Baxter has described Crusaders 3-0 victory over Glentoran as the team's "best performance of the season".

A Caolan Marron own goal, a Ben Kennedy penalty and Aidan Wilson's header gave the Crues a commanding win at the Oval.

In contrast, Glentoran coach Rodney McAree called the defeat "completely unacceptable" and "not good enough".

Crusaders move third, six points off leaders Cliftonville, with the win while Glentoran slip to fifth.

"To come to a venue like this and come out with a 3-0, it possibly could have been 5-0, you have to very pleased with it," said Baxter.

"The second-half performance was really good, with boys getting the on ball, passing it well and working extremely hard to make sure they had no opportunities.

"You need to do that when you come to a place like the Oval against a team who are built very strongly to challenge for a title, and they will challenge for a title.

"You have to work very, very hard to get anything out of a football match and I thought we done that very, very well."

While Crusaders manager Baxter was left delighted with the Seaview man's display, McAree blasted Glentoran's players and said the team "didn't turn up" in the home defeat.

"It is completely unacceptable for a Glentoran team to go out and deliver the 90 minutes that we have," he said.

"It's not good enough - it lacked desire, it lacked hunger and it lacked energy. The hungrier team turned up today and won the game.

"They wanted to win every challenge, they wanted to win every header and we haven't done enough.

"We can put it down as an off day but we need to make sure we learn from today, correct the wrongs and do much better than we have done today."

Former Dungannon Swifts and Coleraine manager McAree believes the decision to award Crusaders a second-half penalty, which left the Glens frustrated after Bobby Burns was penalised after challenging Jonathan McMurray, didn't change the game and Baxter's side would still have won.

Glentoran face Belfast rivals Linfield on Tuesday and the 47-year-old said they to "respond and get better".

"I don't think the penalty has cost us the three points today. We have lost the game through a lack of hunger and a lack of desire," he added.

"The big-two derby is maybe a good thing as we have to respond. We know it is coming up on Tuesday night but every game is huge.

"Every game should be dealt with like a derby and we should have the same mentality every game. If we turn up on Tuesday with the same mentality as we did today then it could be a long night."

Pre-match Baxter had described his team as "beans on toast" compared to Linfield, Glentoran and Larne, who are all heavily fancied to challenge for the title with their full-time set-ups.

However after the win he said his players were more fine-dining with their dominating display.

"The second-half looked like steak, peppered sauce, mushrooms and onions for me, but you can often get beans on toast and scrambled egg performances when you are not expecting them.

"If they keep producing that we might even go for a bit of salmon, we will see what happens."