Michael Wood makes dream debut with brace as Crawley Down Gatwick bounce back to beat Lingfield

Crawley Down bounced back from a dispiriting 5-0 home defeat to East Preston in the Sussex Senior Cup on Tuesday, with a fine away win at Lingfield.

The win moves the Anvils up to sixth in the league table.

The game saw the debut of winger Michael Wood recently signed from rivals Loxwood.

He marked a fine performance with two goals and his obvious talent combined with an impressive work-rate augurs well for the future.

Wood provided the highlight of the early exchanges with a powerful snapshot from just outside the area which drew a spectacular save from ‘keeper Olly Moore.

The Anvils opened the scoring on 25 minutes when Sam Cane, although well placed, unselfishly laid off a perfect ball to the debutant Wood who nonchalantly stroked it into the corner for a dream start to his Crawley Down adventure.

Russell Malton played in Oli Leslie who outpaced the defence and rounded the ‘keeper before slotting home to make it 2-0 to Crawley Down at the break.

The home side surprisingly withdrew their recently signed prolific striker, Ben Bacon, at the break.

The visitors hit back and sealed victory with two late goals.

Sam Cane fired in an unstoppable 92nd minute shot from outside the box that went in off the crossbar.

On 95 minutes Michael Wood scored with a partly blocked shot which made it sail past home ‘keeper Olly Moore.

Crawley Down Gatwick: Greaves, Martin, Wraight (Barton), Cooney, Pelling, Belli (Brown), Malton, Spence, Leslie (Packham), Cane, Wood.

Unused subs: D.Sullivan, Baston

Man of the Match:

Sam Cane

Attendance: 41