Tough watch today at SB from our point of view but also the match generally. Difficult with a swirling wind and rain.
We were better with 10 than we were with 11. Crawley were happy to sit in and didn't touch the ball in our box until the 80th minute or something.
The life of a lower league football fan where your team churns out a 90 minute performance a week earlier and you wonder what on earth happened the next game!
First half we didn't get going at all. Crawley saw most of the ball but didn't really threaten bar Palmer somehow missing from about 2 yards, albeit a ball fired in across a very wet surface and Akinde had a similar misfortune at the other end.
Andrade(?) seemed to get caught in the build up to their first and looked a clear foul but they played on down that side.
Second half and on first viewing, it looked a red card for Frecklington and that kicked us into some sort of action, really. With losing O'Connor to injury and Freck within 10 minutes, we had two number ten type of players in CM and couldn't really get enough quality into Akinde who was isolated having moved from 4-3-3 to 4-4-1.
Mensah missed a good chance at the end but given the quality on show from both sides, a 0-0 was probably about right. The game summed up by Bostwick's OG, which seemed to deflect and get sliced in.
Crawley were decent enough. Decent at the back and in midfield with a couple of lively players i forward areas but poor final balls. They'll be a good bet for top half with an outside chance of the PO's.
Ref was baffling in some of his decision makings. Got the big ones correct, not that there were many to make, but inconsistent in his fouls. Shackell gets penalised for hand ball and their player does exactly the same thing, pretty much in the same position only two minutes later and gives nothing. To give him some credit, he booked 3 Crawley players in quick succession for bringing down Pett, Anderson and Andrade in almost identical challenges as they were countering.
