Crawley Town lose to Leyton Orient amid fans' pro-Yems protests

They felt they were robbed of an equaliser shortly before Orient scored their second when the officials ruled a shot by James Tilley that came down off the underside of the bar had not crossed the line.

The game was overshadowed by protests from the Crawley supporters in support of manager Yems, who is suspended while allegations of discriminatory behaviour are investigated.

Supporters behind the goal sang ‘we want our Yems back’ and let off flares at full time before applauding the squad who completed a lap of honour to thank supporters for their support throughout the season.

Crawley, playing in front of their new owners WAGMI United, for the first time, found themselves behind after just seven minutes when Orient keeper Lawrence Vigouroux’s long ball forward caught out the red’s defence which allowed Archibald to latch onto the ball before lobbing a helpless Glenn Morris in goal.

Orient had a chance to double their lead just ten minutes later when Jordan Tunnicliffe was adjudged to have fouled his man inside the penalty area, but Aaron Drinan failed to convert his penalty as he was denied by Morris before also seeing his headed rebound gathered safely by the Crawley keeper.

Crawley had a penalty shout of their own when midfielder Isaac Hutchinson worked his way into the Orient box before going down under pressure from Omar Beckles but failed to convince the referee to award the spot kick.

Crawley continued to be sloppy but escaped further punishment. Morris was once again called into action to expertly deny Jordan Brown’s curling effort which looked all but certain to tuck into the far post.

Ashley Nadesan had an opportunity at the end of the first half to pull Crawley level when he connected with Archie Davies’s cross into the box, but the forward couldn’t steer his header on target as it sailed wide of the Orient goal.

Orient missed a golden opportunity to put the game to bed in the second half when midfielder Otis Kahn escaped the Crawley defence and rounded Morris, but saw his goal bound effort cleared off the line by some heroic defending from Will Ferry.

Crawley thought they snatched an equaliser in injury time when James Tilley’s long-range effort cannoned off the underside of the bar but was not adjudged to have crossed the line - to the disbelief of the players and supporters alike.

The visitors finally sealed all three points in the last minute of injury time when Drinan pounced on a defensive error and was able to slot the ball past Morris in front of the travelling supporters.

It was a poor performance overall from Crawley, who despite some early second half pressure failed to get themselves back into the game. Nadesan and Tom Nichols could both look back on having squandered decent opportunities to pull the hosts level.

Crawley also lost defender Joel Lynch through injury after a clash of knees with Orient forward Paul Smyth.

Their final game is at Oldham next weekend.

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