RUAIDHRI Higgins praised his side for their getting out of the traps quickly as they earned all three points against Crusaders last night…

Goals from Senan Devine, Jay Henderson and Matthew Shevlin had the Bannsiders three goals to the good with just eight minutes played.

Devine then registered his second of the evening just before the hour mark with another clinical finish, with the other blemish coming at the other end through Michael Mulholland’s goal for the visitors.

When asked to sum-up his thoughts about the result, Higgins said: “We spoke about it beforehand, we wanted a really, really fast start.

“We set the standard last week against Portadown in terms of how you start games and we want to maintain that as best as we can moving forward.

“It’s important that we, I think when we get in front, then it can be very, very difficult to beat us and I felt how we started the game was exactly how we wanted.

“Don’t get me wrong, you never envisage being 3-0 up after eight minutes and I don’t think that’s ever happened to me in my career before.

“However the players have been an absolute credit and they deserve all the credit in the world.”

It means Higgins’ men have taken 13 points from a possible 15 and the gaffer is delighted with his side’s start to the new campaign.

He added: “We’ve conceded two goals in five matches and scored 12, so I’m really, really happy.

“I know we’re only five games in, but I have to say, we’re in a good place, the squad is in a good place with the balance of the squad.

“We have really good people in the changing room and we have players who want to be here for the right reasons and we’re delighted from when the window closed that we have that.”