NIXON WINNER SHAKES UP TITLE RACE
Stewart Nixon bagged the only goal of the game as Crusaders defeated leaders Larne at Inver Park.
A quiet first half, it took until around the 30 minute mark for the first real effort on goal when Andy Ryan headed onto the roof of the net from a Joe Thomson corner.
The sides traded chances moments before the break with Lewis Barr seeing his ball across the face of goal gathered by Rohan Ferguson while Dylan Sloan fired over from distance.
Larne might have found a way through early in the second half after Ryan sent the ball over from the left for Lee Bonis but the Crues managed to deal with the threat.
Ryan then tested Jonny Tuffey from range while, at the other end, Jarlath O'Rourke was about to pull the trigger only to be thwarted by a superbly timed Tomas Cosgrove tackle.
Nixon then produced a diving save from Ferguson to keep the scores level, followed soon after by a Jordan Owens header which dropped narrowly wide.
The Crues continued to push with Jordan Forsythe seeing an effort pushed over by Ferguson before, with eight minutes remaining, Nixon knocked home what proved to be the winner with a header from point blank range after Ross Clarke had sent in a free-kick.
Larne: Ferguson, Donnelly, Thomson, Bonis, Millar, Cosgrove, Graham, Sloan, Gallagher, Ryan, Williams subs McAdams, Kearns, Randall, O'Neill, Westendorf, Glynn, Simpson
Crusaders: Tuffey, Burns, Weir, Kennedy, Lecky, Forsythe, O'Rourke, Larmour, Clarke, Boyd, Barr subs Kerr, Joshua, Owens, Winchester, Nixon, Maguire, James
Substitution 
Substitution 
