Crawley Town 0, Birmingham City 1: £15m striker scores winner for Brum in match delayed by serious incident

After keeping the forward quiet for long periods of the game, Reds were undone by his header in the 79th minute which snuck into the bottom corner. This goal came just two minutes after Dion Conroy, who returned and captained the side for the first time since pre-season, was substituted.

Surprisingly, Ronan Darcy started on the bench but was introduced earlier than expected when Ade Adeyemo was forced off with a concussion in the 26th minute.

The match was delayed by 15 minutes to due to a serious medical incident.

From kick-off, Birmingham pressed Crawley high up the pitch which resulted in mistakes but luckily they were in non-dangerous areas. However,Reds soon looked comfortable in possession and they stopped Blues from getting any shots at goal for the most part of the first half.

It took 25 minutes for Jojo Wollacott to be called into action when he comfortably saved Paik Seung-ho’s powerful strike. After being blocked out of the game for the first 30 minutes, Stansfield got his first sight of goal with a volley that forced Wollacott to produce a brilliant diving save to prevent the ball rustling the top corner.

Tola Showunmi looked to be a constant problem for the Birmingham defence whose only solution was to pull the forwards shirt.

After having not conceded many chances in the first half, Crawley were soon forced to defend against a persistent Birmingham.

Just two minutes into the second half, Birmingham fans wanted a penalty when Alfie May went down in the box but referee Farai Hallam ignored the shouts. Keshi Anderson came agonisingly close to opening the scoring with a low-driven strike that whistled past the outside of the post.

Seung-Ho then had two efforts simultaneously. First his free-kick from the edge of the box was deflected for a corner and then from that resulting corner he had a powerful strike saved by Wollacott.

The pressure placed on Crawley’s defence began to lighten and Reds began to create some chances of their own. Ronan Darcy wriggled his way into space in order to get a shot away that was deflected and then Panutche Camara played an enticing low cross into the box which was smashed clear by Christoph Klarer.

With ten minutes left and everything to play for, Birmingham took the lead when Stansfield got onto the end of Anderson’s cross and headed in from close range. Lyndon Dykes should have doubled the lead but couldn’t get on the end of Ethan Laird’s low cross which flashed across the six-yard box.

With less than a minute left on the clock, Darcy tried to salvage something for Reds but his effort curled wide of the post. Despite a good performance, this defeat means that Crawley remain in the relegation zone for Christmas.