Crawley Town begin pre-season with comfortable win at Walton Casuals

A Tom Nichols double and a goal from a trialist forward secured victory for the Reds.

Manager John Yems handed new signing Owen Gallacher his first start for the club. The team featured four trialisits as well as young talent Rafiq Khaleel and Zaid Al-Hussaini.

Crawley needed just four minutes to find the opener. Archie Davies' cross was confidently turned home by a trialist.

Young gun Al-Hussaini was alert to snuff out a loose ball before squaring it to another trialist. Despite his good positioning, the trialist couldn't get his shot away.

The second half saw Yems make 11 changes at half-time. New boys Harry Ransom and Jack Payne both appeared, while the likes on Tom Dallison, George Francomb and Nichols also stepped onto the pitch.

Crawley added their second on 67 minutes. Sam Matthews did brilliantly to win the ball and square it to Nichols who rifled home into the corner.

And Nichols added his second with five minutes remaining. Excellent combination play from Matthews and Tyler Frost released Nichols and the forward was brought down in the area, resulting in a penalty.

Nichols stepped up, and blasted his penalty into the bottom-right corner to make it 3-0 to the Reds.

The forwards was denied a hat-trick just a minute later. His close-range header was excellently kept out by the Walton Casuals goalkeeper.

The Reds travel to near-neighbours Horley Town this Saturday for their second pre-season friendly. The game at The New Defence gets underway at 3pm.

First half XI: Trialist, Davies, Trialist, Adebowale, Gallacher, Al-Hussaini, Khaleel, Powell, Tilley, Trialist, Trialist.

Second half XI: Jones, Francomb, Ransom, Dallison, Tsaroulla, Matthews, Hessenthaler, Payne, Frost, Rodari, Nichols.