First blood to Reds in Carabao Cup prelude - Crawley Town opinion

The answer is probably not, beyond seeing the prospect of a titanic clash. The teams are closely matched and the current league table shows them separated only by goal difference.

A rarely seen facet of Crawley’s games in recent seasons gave their supporters reasons to be cheerful. They followed a disappointing and disjointed first half (and probably a right rollicking from the manager during the interval) with a much improved and ultimately winning display in the second period. Reds didn’t just overwhelm the visitors they conquered their own demons as well.

Watch Reece Grego-Cox interview hereWhilst Reds generally coped with the threat of the powerful Frank Nouble they were made to look second best overall as the opening forty-five progressed. Colchester merited their interval lead although Tom Dallison would have been disappointed in allowing fellow centre back Luke Prosser to get in front of him and head home the opener from a corner.

Also disappointed must have been Josh Doherty who might feel the officials have got it in for him after receiving another undeserved yellow card on his return after suspension. But in the event the pros exceeded the cons and that allowed the fans to go home in a positive frame of mind.

See our player ratingsThe goals both deserved the highest praise. The effervescent Reece Grego-Cox scored the equaliser. I was bang in line with his view of a gap in a crowded penalty area and he steered his low shot from 20 yards unerringly through it and inside the far post. He could see his opportunity and was good enough to take it. He deserves more goals.

Our winner came from an archetypal “on me ‘ead son” situation. Lewis Young is not renowned for his crossing ability but this one to the near post was perfection and Mason Bloomfield buried his header. If you are going to score you might just as well score brilliantly and that was the manner of our winning goal.

The winning margin might have been bigger although Colchester did not deserve that. Their keeper Dean Gerken had turned a hard drive by Ashley Nathaniel-George onto a post and late on that same upright shuddered as Bez Lubala slammed another effort against it.

I had been wondering about Lubala recently as he hasn’t scored for a month but an on-line check of the reported action showed just how much he is involved whenever the Reds are on the attack. What a marvellous signing he has proved to be.

Before Colchester’s return visit we have to play three really tough league fixtures. The results in those games could define our season but whatever the individual outcomes I definitely believe that Crawley Town are on an upward path.