Lewes 2’s vs Crawley 2’s

Having only just played out a 4-4 all draw in normal time a few weeks ago, Crawley knew that this Lewes visit would again require maximum effort and them to take their chances, as it was going to be a tough match.

Lewes started well and ran good lines cutting through the Crawley team, but they were unable to convert the early pressure and a Crawley counter attack gave them the chance to open the scoring with David Litchfield, who made no mistake from a yard out. Lewes did not panic and responded quickly with 2 goals from short corners to take the lead. Crawley missed a golden chance, with Tom Macintosh firing in a hard shot just wide of the post from their own short corner routine and Alex Coote missing the tip in and the ball entirely. Lewes continued to play good hockey and scored a 3rd before half time to go in at the break 3-1 up.

Reinvigorated by the jelly babies, Crawley pressed Lewes hard and put them under good pressure but Lewes didn’t panic and scored a 4th. Crawley showed their spirit and did not let their heads go down, and kept at it. The game becoming increasingly physical, with Lewes players and Kane Paterson (twice) getting green cards. Crawley had an excellent 5 minute spell and got just reward with Karl Bass converting a short corner to make it 4-2. The travelling fans (all 3 of them) thought for a second the comeback was on
Crawley were unable to grab a third with a Karl Bass shot looping onto the crossbar. When Lewes got back to full strength they nabbed a fifth goal. Only several excellent tackles from the defence of Simon Teale, Matt Park, Oliver Robinson and Liam Mulcalhy stopped any further damage to the scoreboard.

Crawley may not of got the start to the league season they wanted but they again showed the never give up spirit which will serve them really well in the matches to come, and given this was probably the best team in the league the signs are good for the coming season.