Crawley Town 3 Stockport County 2 ( Football League 2) Tuesday 13 September 2022

 

 

 

A truly dismal performance from County at the Broadfield Stadium saw them surrender all the points to a no better than average Crawley Town side tonight.

The weather mirrored County`s display- the wet stuff sledging down all night, but early doors we were deluded into thinking…maybe….just maybe as Crankshaw twice went close – keeper Addai`s saves keeping him out. County made nothing of both subsequent corners( of which more later) before going behind to a lucky deflection that hurried Tilley`s shot into the net.

Crankshaw scored a belter to make it 1-1, only for County`s first defensive lapse of the night to gift Town the lead again before half time.  

The second half was a reprise of the first as County equalised again from Hussey`s free kick, won by Crankshaw, before the defence went AWOL again shortly after allowing Tsaroulla to pick his spot and win the match for our hosts.

There was half an hour for County to sort matters but try as the forwards did the all too familiar defensive frailties sadly did for a brave effort- an abysmally poor return for the  386 who made the trip to Sussex to support their team!

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County were in yellow as the game started in a downpour that was to last way beyond the final whistle.

Crawley were under pressure straight away as County, with Crankshaw leading the charge energetically piled into them. The neatest of saves by keeper Addai kept Ollie out twice and both times we settled for corners that were delivered to the area beyond the back post and it was sad to see the defenders able to clear both without too much ado. My sadness was only multiplied by having seen Ash Palmer put through his paces pre kick off by the training staff and remembering just how excellent he still is at putting that type of opportunity away- Ash was again not even on the bench, where Croasdale the lynchpin alongside Collar of last season`s promotion winning midfield, languished all last night!

And our failure to apply the required finish reaped a whirlwind in the blinking of an eye….. as play switched ends with Town clearing their lines.

The lengthy pressure from County had ended abruptly along with any over confidence I might be feeling, and fortune smiled massively in the Reds direction as James Tilley`s speculative effort took a massive deflection off someone in yellow before ending up in the net- County were 1-0 down with 5 minutes gone!

Camps gave away a needless free kick next ( the first of many we would give away on this wettest of evenings).

Thankfully Town made nothing of it, or of their next attack on 14 minutes – Jaros doing well to deny Tsaroulla.

Then the over confidence came back for yours truly as County went straight up the park from this last action where Crankshaw buried a fantastic finish beyond anything Addai could produce to stop him!

We were level….it was 1-1!

And it was almost 2-1 within seconds as a copycat raid by Crankshaw saw him miss out narrowly.

Things settled down somewhat after that with County enjoying much possession and looking the team `most likely to`- a neat move involving Wright, Brown and Crankshaw typifying this but sadly ending with the unedifying sight of Hussey`s corner going down Addai`s throat after the keeper had again foiled Ollie`s best efforts.

Then I winced to see Horsfall`s foul tee County`s opponents up with a tasty free kick opportunity – DC`s men were indebted to Jaros`s prompt reactions as he cut Dom Telford`s run into the box off.

 

 

 

 

 

We had escaped, but we hadn`t learned anything as we gifted Town another free kick in an interesting position. Brown and Camp were able to cover the danger that this brought and clear their lines, but our back line needed to tighten up.

 

 

 

 

The 33rd saw Wootton ( a consistent finder of yellow shirts with his passes) shoot tamely into the arms of Addai when played through.

It took just another 2 minutes for gloom to descend upon the large County following as in attempting to play their way out of a deep defensive position they promptly went into doze mode – one minute yellow shirts had the ball…the next it was with Telford and the home specs were quickly celebrating as he planted a firm drive into County`s net!

That was truly awful defending and with 10 minutes of the half to play County were 1-2 down.

County did their best to respond- Collar clear but kept out by Addai. Two corners followed from this – the first best forgotten, the second seeing Crankshaw out of luck with a sight of goal.

Nicholls and Telford combined to pressurise the County back line – but having managed to defend the situation, the yellow shirted blues contrived to mess up again through Lewis who fed Nicholls with the loosest of passes. We deserved to be punished -we weren`t but it was not pretty.

It was half time though and perhaps we could re-group and salvage the game?

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County spent the first 5 or 6 minutes of the second half searching for that equaliser- looking good when a foul on Sarcevic gave us a potential scoring chance from the free kick, then not so as the free kick came to nought in familiar fashion.

 

 

 

 

Then things brightened up a touch as James Balagizi clattered Crankshaw wide right. There was much to do from the free kick, but Hussey did it with gold plated knobs on curling a kick of superlative quality beyond Addai`s grasp into the net!

Almost unbelievably, we were level at 2-2 !

And then we weren`t as in just 3 minutes we were wading thigh deep in the squelchy brown stuff as, with yellow shirts eschewing to tackle red shirt after red shirt the ball reached Nick Tsaroulla who leathered a belter home!

We were 3-2 down, but there was 30 minutes left in which to put matters right.

County did keep looking……..looking for another equaliser but with every clearance by someone in red this prospect grew ever more remote.

Crankshaw and Hussey were both denied the former by Addai, the latter just by good defending from the home team`s M.O.M Ludwig Francillette.

County replaced Lewis and Wright with CJ and Rydel after the hour which now saw us with Horsfall and Hussey in the central defensive roles.

This did not eradicate the occasional dangerous raid by our hosts and Nichols fancied his chances having feasted on a loose ball to dart into the box. He fancied his chances even more so when he then went to ground under pressure, but Referee Hair ( who I thought did OK) ignored the home crowd`s pleading to wave play on.

Wootton then went close for County, and Powell for Town looking to profit from more loose play from County.

But it stayed 2-3…..and again it did as Rydel won a corner that had 6 yellow shirts vying for it ….without success.

It went on with Francillette earning his M.O.M with some neat defending to keep Wootton from Crankshaw`s pass.

By now Evans had come on for Hussey and Hippolyte had replaced Camps with time running out.

The County pressure continued into 6 minutes added time- Crankshaw the closest to success but foiled yet again by Addai deep into the 6 minutes.

Soon it was `game over` and the points were all Town`s.

If County had a lot of the play, they could hardly complain about the result, being largely the author of their own demise.

I am now on the Flyer …it`s 11.45 and have just seen that the Club are expecting season ticket holders to respond and purchase tickets for Northampton at 10 am tomorrow.

I am sure that, despite the awfulness of tonight`s showing by County, that supporters will do the biz and continue to get behind the team, but surely it is time that they were rewarded by altogether better on the field performances from the blues?!

Crawley Town line up:-

Addai, Craig, Tilley ( Powell 63), Nicholls, Ransom, Francillette, Telford ( Nadisan 73), Balagizi, Tsaroulla ( Johnson 63), Fellows, Hessenthala ( Ogungbo 81).

Subs not used; Robson, Khaleeli, Chukwuemeka.

 

Stockport County line up:-

Jaros, Brown, Lewis ( C Jennings 64), Horsfall, Hussey ( Evans 83), Wright ( Rydel 64), Camps ( Hippolyte 83), Collar, Sarcevic, Wootton, Crankshaw.

 

Subs not used: Hinchliffe, R Johnson, Croasdale.

Attendance: 2187 ( 386)

 

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