Crawley XI vs Marden Russetts

After a good warm up the game started poorly for Crawley as they were put on the back foot from the off. A few silly mistakes and missed tackles lead to some dangerous attacks from Marden in the first 10 mins, they eventually converted twice to take a 2-0 lead, despite the heroic efforts of Luke Murphy in goal.

15 minutes in and Crawley had broken away for an attack when cynical foul on Murphy lead to a confrontation between the Crawley player and the Marden player, after this Murphy was shown a straight red card much to the dismay and confusion of Crawley, Marden and the spectators watching, with no punishment offered for the offending Marden player.

Down to 10 Crawley had to readjust and although up against it, the red card and clear disadvantage from some woeful umpiring galvanised the Crawley team and they pulled a goal back through a brilliant run from Reece Banton whose sliced finish spun into the goal. Crawley now back in the game at 2-1 piled on the pressure and had some excellent passing hockey but couldn’t find that equaliser.

The second half began much better for Crawley with some excellent break away play causing Marden some problems, even with a man less. Another decision against Crawley saw Hasan Yousef sent to the side line and Crawley went down to 9, Crawley’s efforts increased and they managed to pull another goal back when Seb Watson managed to spin round the goalkeeper and was ready to tap into an empty goal when yet another cynical tackle from the Marden defender stopped his progress, after initially giving a short corner the umpires realised they had made an error and upgraded it to a penalty flick, although no punishment again for the Marden player despite it being an open goal and horrible tackle, Kieran Fuller despatched the flick to the bottom left corner, 2-2.

Still pushing to score, Crawley left more gaps at the back and Marden scored again making it 3-2 despite a fine save from Luke Murphy. Crawley then pressed again and through a penalty corner Jonny Reigate was able to fire in from the top of the D, 4-3.

Marden now panicking were making silly mistakes and some really bad tackles, again unpunished. After a string of 3 or 4 attacks Crawley gave the ball away cheaply and Marden scored, with the wind now taken out of them Crawley conceded another quick goal and Marden sealed the victory.

MOM: Luke Murphy
DOD: James Murphy
Scoreres: Banton, Fuller, Reigate
Cards: Murphy (RED), Brightwell (YELLOW), Yousef (YELLOW), Reigate (GREEN)

Squad: L. Murphy, J. Ortyl, M. Brightwell, H. Yousef, M. Campbell, J. Reigate, J. Murphy, R. Banton, R. Haimes, S. Watson. K. Fuller, Sub: S. Innes