Our season started in fitting style as we headed to play our friends at Crawley in our first IFA League game of the season. This would be the 4th game I'd been involved in with the Crawley lads and we looked forward to seeing some friendly faces again.
The game itself began quite tight with both sides enjoying spells of possession, Crawley began to take charge however after sustained attacks from throw ins and set pieces we managed to stay resolute and keep them out, we had a few direct free kicks and set pieces of own and while we weren't too far away, we didn't worry Dan in the Crawley goal too much.
The 'Reds' playing in white, kept us penned in our own half for long spells but we looked dangerous on the break, and that proved decisive, Ryan Merritt picking out a great through ball for Steve Hedges who tucked home to send us 1-0 up.
We were unlucky not to take a 2-0 lead as a similar move to the first goal led to us finding the net again, Gaffer Ben having a goal harshly ruled out for offside, a decision even some Crawley defenders found surprising!
We went into the half time break in the lead, and after making some changes, we struggled to find our rythym, and Crawley began to dominate on the ball, about 10 minutes into the half they found their equaliser, a great ball into the box was met with a superb header, 1-1. Our heads dropped and we struggled for long periods again in the second half, Crawley found their second with a nice finish. And it wasn't long before they completed their deserved victory with another header, 3-1 the final score.
Not the best result for us but definitely a lot of positives to take from our first game of the season and only our 3rd 90 minute match together. A massive thankyou to Dan and Joe and the rest of the Crawley boys for hosting us, it was a pleasure as always and we look forward to hosting them in the not too distant future!
UTG!
Ben.
