Crawley 1s 4 - 2 Folkestone 2s

10th March '18

Crawley faced a crunch game against Folkstone, knowing only a win would do after a string of draws throughout the season had left Crawley in a precarious position. Despite a strong warm-up Crawley started the game slowly, and has often been the case this year found themselves behind early; a Folkestone attacker leaving three or four sluggish Crawley defenders for dead before laying on a tap-in for a teammate. This seemed to wake Crawley up as they sprung into action and struck back twice to take the lead during a competitive and physical first half; John Reigate scoring first with a fine flick from a short corner, before Dan Evans gave Crawley the lead to take into half time.

The second half began poorly for Crawley as a renewed intensity from Folkestone forced several errors across the Crawley backline, one of which resulted in a short corner which was dispatched through Luke Murphy in the Crawley goal. The second half was a fractured affair, with both sides scrapping for possession and quality. Poor tackles went in from both sides and a number of players were sin-binned. Folkestone had the chance to take what could have been a crucial lead, but Murphy in the Crawley goal made a miraculous save to prevent what should have been a certain goal. It was then Crawley who emerged from this scrap with the victory, as Reece Banton continued his fine goal scoring form with a deflection into the roof of the net and Kieran Fuller put the game beyond Folkestone with a calm finish to give Crawley a key three points.

CRAWLEY: L. Murphy, M. Brightwell, J. Innes, M. Campbell, B. MacCaoilte, R. Banton, D. Evans, J. Reigate, S. Innes, J. Murphy, S. Watson, K. Fuller(c)