Crawley suffer heartache at hands of St Francis

ST FRANCIS 1s 3 - 2 CRAWLEY 2S

Crawley came into the game knowing the importance of this fixture. Both teams were within the bottom half of the league and wanted to press on to not get into a relegation battle this early on.

Both teams started well and were creating chances only to see both goalkeepers make some great saves. The breakthrough came in the 15th minute when a good team move by St Francis saw them work the ball around the defence and convert from close range. There needed to be an instant response and there was from Theo Hillman. He found himself in a great position in front of goal following on from a hard low ball into the D by James Fuller, able to deflect the ball past the St Francis goalkeeper. Crawley continued to pressurise St Francis and were winning lots of PC and captain Chris Rockingham had a superb shot saved by the keeper from close range. Crawley won a PC on the stroke of half time and a drag flick from James Fuller saw the ball smash into the St Francis net to give them a 2-1 lead at Half time.

Crawley knew that St Francis would come out strong in the second half and apply lots of pressure to the Crawley goal. Crawley absorbed this pressure very well but then saw Joe Radoux pick up his first green card which meant Crawley had to regroup and this left a hole in the midfield and St Francis pounced on this and scored a good breakaway goal. St Francis continued to look for the winner and with two Crawley players being yellow carded for bad tackles Crawley were really under the cosh. From one of the resulting PC St Francis stepped up and converted a dubious chance that saw the Crawley players not pleased due to obstruction. The goal stood and a yellow card was also brandished to the Crawley goalkeeper. Captain Chris Rockingham took the helmet and stepped into the net. St Francis continued to pressure and stand in kicking back Rockingham pulled off some good saves. Crawley had one last chance on the final whistle to convert a PC but the St Francis defence stood strong and were able to clear the ball away.

Rockingham commented after the game "It is a difficult result to swallow. Both teams had chances but St Francis were able to convert theirs whilst we could not be as clinical. Our discipline in the second half allowed them the opportunities to get back into the game and we need to cut that out of our game if we are going to be successful. I can't fault the effort and work rate of all the players, we just need to start getting more points on the table"

Team: White, Rockingham, Berry, Fuller, Robinson, Coote, Hales, Paterson, Radoux, Murphy, Hillman, Haworth

MOTM: James Fuller
DOTD: Chris White