Crawley Town 1, Cheltenham Town 3: Reds lose at home again despite taking early lead
Crawley Town slipped to another defeat on Saturday lunchtime, after two Charlie McCann goals and another from Andreas Weimann secured a 3-1 win for Cheltenham Town.
Dylan Morgan put Crawley ahead after seven minutes, but McCann (32) and Weimann (35) gave the Robins a 2-1 lead at half time and McCann’s secured the win on 54 minutes.
Crawley made four changes from their 3-2 defeat at Accrington Stanley last weekend.
Nicholas Michalski, Kellan Gordon, Dion Pereira and Dylan Morgan came in for Jackson Izquierdo, Malcolm Ebiowei, Akin Odimayo and Klaudio Krasniqi, who all drop to the bench, whilst their opponents were unchanged after their 2-2 draw with Grimsby.
The Reds started brightly and their hard work was rewarded when on 7 minutes, some excellent play down the left flank by Osman Kamara and Ade Adeyemo, with Kamara putting in a cross to Danilo Orsi, who laid it back to Dylan Morgan to curl home from 15 yards for his first goal in the Football League, and Crawley’s first home goal of the season.
The game then turned on its head. First, Crawley should have made it 2-0 when it was Morgan again with the ball at his feet inside the box, this time after Pereira and Gordon linked well on the right side, but Morgan fired his shot over the bar.
Within a minute though, Cheltenham were level, from a corner laid out to the edge of the box, the resulting shot was deflected back to Charlie McCann to curl his shot round Michalski on 32 minutes.
It went from bad to worse for Crawley. Louie Watson appeared to be fouled in the centre circle and was holding his head. However, referee Ben Toner waved play on, and Jordan Shipley crossed onto Andreas Weimann’s head to make it 2-1 to the visitors on 35 minutes.
Crawley’s best chance of the second half came right at the start of the half, when Orsi’s flicked header was cleared off the line. Despite the attacking effort from Crawley, they seemed susceptible to the counterattack, and that’s exactly what happened.
Arthurs’ flick couldn’t find Gordon, and the ball was cleared to Weimann, who held the ball up for McCann who was left to slot home from close range for his second and Cheltenham’s third.
The woodwork took a bit of a battering as first Osman Kamara hit the Cheltenham bar, then Robins’ substitute Freddy Wilcox and Jordan Shipley hit Crawley’s cross bar. Crawley tried to get back into the game, but Cheltenham held out for a well-earned 3-1 win.
Before the 3pm kick-offs, Crawley remained in 21st position and travel to Grimsby next weekend, while Cheltenham moved up into second on 11 points.