Crawley Left Short but Battle to the Final Whistle

Crawley Men's 1st XI took on Gore Court last Saturday and they were hoping to repeat the 4-1 win they earned away in Sittingbourne. With the away side sitting in 2nd position in the table and Crawley having slumped to 3 straight defeats in the league, the home team knew that they would require something special if they were to turn their luck around. Luck was not with Crawley today as they were down to 9 men before the game had even started. 2 of their players were otherwise engaged leaving coach Keith Frimley with no option other than to call up new Club member Karl Bass and himself to the starting XI.

Gore Court started the strongest and had Crawley camped in their own half for the opening 10 minutes. They were able to dominate possession and eventually managed to win a short corner. However, with goalkeeper Jamie Westwood on fine form, they were unable to convert. The home side were lifted by this and able to step up and attack themselves. Soon after, Gore Court managed to catch Crawley on the break with an overload down their right side and a cool conversion on the opposite post giving them the lead. Crawley not wanting to let their heads drop began to take the game to Gore Court and with some good skill from Karl Bass and Rob Gate down the left won a short corner of their own. A Kieran Fuller drag flick was saved well by the keeper and lines cleared quickly by the away side.

As the half progressed both teams began to create chances and it was Gore Court who found the net again with a break down the middle working the ball through the Crawley defence and ultimately around a helpless Westwood to double their lead. Some words were shared between the Crawley defenders and Court attackers with the umpires warning both sets of players.

Crawley began the brighter in the second half and a run from right back Kieran Fuller around the back of the Gore Court defence and along the baseline set up Seb Watson to tap home to bring Crawley within a goal. Both teams continued exerting pressure and the game became stretched as both sets of players began to tire. Gore Court won several short corners but Westwood continued his fine form and saved everything that came at him from corner specialist Aaron Glass. Coach Kieth Frimley even chipped in with a stop on the line at the left post. Crawley hit back with their own corner immediately with Karl Bass causing trouble again and finding a defender's foot in the D. With a slick move transferring the ball from the centre, to the right and back again, Crawley slotted home to draw level only to find the goal disallowed as the umpire blew up for foul on Fuller, failing to play advantage leaving the home team spitting feathers.

Against the run of play, Gore Court managed to capitalise on a turnover by the Crawley midfielders and attack the defenders with men over and stretching their lead to 3-1. But the Sussex team were not done and with 10 minutes remaining won 4 further short corners with Fuller firing wide of the right post, hitting the left post and setting up Alex Watson who could not find the target. The final play of the game was a Crawley short corner which Kieran Fuller converted in the top left corner with the game ending in another narrow defeat for Crawley, 3-2.

After the game, captain Alex Watson spoke admirably of the spirit shown by his players, "To have had to scrape around 30 minutes before we started to field a full team and come from behind and battle like we did was incredible. We showed great character and passion today. I think we all feel a little hard done by with the corner being disallowed but worked so hard for one another and I'm sure we will get some good results out of the remaining games this season if we play half as good as today!".

Squad:
Jamie Westwood (GK)
Keith Frimley
Mark Brightwell
Kieran Fuller
Alex Watson (C)
Brendan Maccaoilte
Reece Banton
Rob Gate
Seb Watson
Steve Innes
Karl Bass

Complete Tyres Man of the Match: Jamie Westwood