Crawley Town 1, Doncaster Rovers 1: Super-sub Khaleel gets point for Reds - but it could have been more

Crawley fought hard to find a goal against the midtable side as Doncaster held on for a long period of the second half, looking to keep their one goal advantage.

18 points separated the two sides prior to kick off, however, the two teams on the pitch certainly did not look like they were 10 places apart as both teams fought hard in a tight match which was decided by a set-piece.

Joel Lynch had his first start in three games and unfortunately could not make it to half time due to an unknown injury, as he was taken off for Kellan Gordon. Lindsey will not be pleased as Lynch has already missed several games since he took charge due to injury and suspension. For Crawley’s sake, hopefully Lynch is not on the side-lines for long.

Both sides were struggling to create anything clear cut to begin with as Doncaster could not even manage a shot until the latter stages of the first half as Charlie Seaman struck the ball straight into Corey Addai’s arms.

The second shot from Doncaster did however, as Caolan Lavery’s glanced header from a Ben Close free kick gave the away side the lead with the last attack of the half after Crawley looked to be the side closer to breaking the deadlock. Crawley will not be happy with how they defended the set piece as Lavery was not tightly marked and Corey Addai left enough space in the left of his goal for Lavery to capitalise.

Things nearly got worse for Crawley in the second half as Mazeed Ogungbo recklessly took out Joe Olowu with a mistimed challenge in the 59th minute. The fullback might be looking back at the challenge feeling a little fortunate the card he received was yellow instead of red.

Crawley’s attacking display clearly was impacted by the goal as throughout the second half as the Doncaster backline sat a little deeper, the red devils struggled to create opportunities in the same way they were managing in the first half. The goal Crawley were chasing did not look like it was coming as the clock continued to tick by until Rafiq Khaleel got Crawley the goal they needed. In the 82nd minute. The goal came as Oteh had a shot blocked which fell into the path of the substitute, whose first-time strike went in off the post leaving Moore with no chance.

Despite causing havoc in the box in the late stages, Crawley could not manage to put the ball in the net a second time. They now find themselves two points clear of Hartlepool in 23rd, putting a lot of pressure on next week’s game in hand against Grimsby, as an opportunity to create space between them and the drop.