FOOTBALL: Injury crisis at the Showgrounds

The duo limped out of the action in either half at Seaview and are doubtful for home doubleheader against Cliftonville and Glentoran.

"Seven first team players were unavailable on Saturday and of the ones who took the field, a couple of them were hanging together," said Platt.

"The early injury to Marc forced us to bring Gareth Harkin on, who hasn't played any football in the last three weeks and was slightly

suffering towards the end.

"We hadn't planned for him to play for so long but we're on our knees with the injury situation.

"We hung in until the end on Saturday but we were lacking the creative spark which some of the absentees would have provided.

"I can't fault anyone's effort or determination to win, but when you're lacking the creativity in the final third of the pitch it makes things very difficult.

"We didn't test either goalkeeper enough, I think an Aaron Black snapshot from about eight yards out was the closest we came and that is disappointing for me because I thought we could have made them work more.

"It was just a bizarre game from start to finish. We defended poorly for their two goals, but I don't think Crusaders were anything special

either.

"We always felt, even at 2-0 if we could get a goal we'd be able to make life difficult for them towards the end.

"Had we got either of those penalty shouts and managed to convert them, it would have made it a very interesting last 10-15 minutes.

"With the number of players we had out we were always going to find it difficult, but I don't think our task was helped by some bizarre refereeing decisions from pretty much the first whistle to the last.

"There were big moments in the game and you hope the referee sees them and gets them right. Everyone is human and we all make mistakes now and again, but to get as many wrong as the referee did is unacceptable

for our level of football."