The week was marred by two English losses to South African teams and one to Afghanistan, with Crawley Town conceding ten goals while managing to score only four in response.
I personally attended both matches last week, forgoing watching England’s victory over Italy on TV, which secured their spot in the upcoming Euros, in favor of a trip to Worthing. On Saturday, I watched Crawley lose to Jack Powell’s Crewe.
In both games, Crawley took the lead twice but disappointingly succumbed rather meekly in the second half. This allowed Worthing to advance in the Sussex Senior Cup, and Crewe walked away with all the points up north.
During the Tuesday game in Worthing, Adeyemo scored twice in the first half, giving us a 1-0 and then a 2-1 lead. Even when we fell behind 3-2 just before the break, I held onto hope for a comeback. However, injuries to Ransom and Adebayo, coupled with Johnson’s red card due to indiscipline, dashed that optimism, and we ended up losing 6-2.
Worthing fielded half of the team that had defeated Bath City the previous Saturday, whereas we made ten changes from the team that had lost to Wrexham the week before. While I’m not a football manager, it’s possible that adopting a similar approach to Worthing could have led to a different outcome in the Sussex Senior Cup.
Perhaps Scott Lindsey was distracted by the rumors coming out of Kent, but that didn’t seem to affect our performance on Saturday. Klaidi Lolos, starting the game, swiftly put Crawley in the lead. However, Crewe capitalized on our midfield mistakes to equalize just eight minutes later.
As Powell returned to Broadfield Stadium with Crewe, it became evident that he had improved his corner-taking skills. We went into the break 2-1 up after a great shot by Ronan Darcy, but Crewe secured the three points with two goals of their own and an unfortunate own goal by Dion Conroy in the second half.
The outcome was disappointing, especially following what appeared to be a significant injury to key player Liam Kelly and Darcy’s substitution, despite his strong performance.
I’m willing to shoulder some of the blame for this defeat, as I had pointed out our strong home record and their poor away record in my previous article.
Adding to the week’s woes, we received the sad news of Sir Bobby Charlton’s passing, and South Africa narrowly defeated England in rugby.
In my younger days, my father took me to watch England play Mexico in the World Cup, and I vividly remember being in line with Bobby when he scored the iconic goal that set our World Cup journey in motion. Rest in peace, Sir Bobby.
I’d also like to pay tribute to Neil Le Bihan, who played for Crawley in the 2002/03 season, making 43 appearances. Rest in peace, Neil Le Bihan.
Please note that this column was written before Crawley earned a point at Walsall in the midweek match. You can read the report for that game separately.
Lastly, we have introduced a new method for individuals to contribute articles to our newspapers and Sussex website. This approach enables people to submit their content directly into our system, which can be promptly published after a review by our editorial staff.
Leave a Reply